“A pretty piece of work I have been about!  It is all owing to your advice, Mrs. Freeman.  If it had not been for you I should not have made such a fool of myself.”

“Why, what has happened to you?” asked Mrs. Freeman, anxiously.  “What advice have I given you which has caused trouble?”

“You recommended my calling upon Mrs. Dawson, did you not?”

“Certainly:  I thought it the easiest way to relieve your mind from painful suspicions.  What did she say?”

“Say!  I wish you could have seen the look she gave me when I told her what I saw at Mrs. White’s.  You know her haughty manner?  She thanked me for the trouble I had taken on her account, and begged leave to assure me that she had perfect confidence in the honesty of Mrs. White.  The articles which had caused me so much unnecessary anxiety were intrusted to her care when they went to Europe, and it had not yet been convenient to reclaim them.  I cannot tell you how contemptuously she spoke.  I never felt so mortified in my life.”

“There is no occasion for feeling so, if your intentions were good,” answered Mrs. Freeman; “and certainly it must be a relief to you to hear the other side of the story.  Nothing less would have convinced you of Mrs. White’s honesty.”

Mrs. Morris was prevented from replying by the sudden and violent ringing of the bell, and an instant after the door was thrown open, and the old lady, whose supposed unhappy condition had called forth their sympathies, rushed into the room.

“Oh, save me! save me!” she exclaimed, frantically.  “I am pursued,—­protect me, for the love of Heaven!”

“Poor creature!” said Mrs. Morris.  “You see that I was not mistaken in this story, at least.  There can be no two sides to this.”

“Depend upon it there is,” replied Mrs. Freeman; but she courteously invited her visiter to be seated, and begged to know what had occasioned her so much alarm.

The poor lady told a plausible and piteous tale of ill-treatment, and, indeed, actual abuse.  Mrs. Morris listened with a ready ear, and loudly expressed her horror and indignation.  Mrs. Freeman was more guarded.  There was something in the old lady’s appearance and manners that excited an undefinable feeling of fear and aversion.  Mrs. Freeman felt much perplexed as to the course she ought to pursue, and looked anxiously at the clock to see if the time for her husband’s return was near.

It still wanted nearly two hours, and after a little more consideration she decided to go herself into the next door, ask for an interview with the lady of the house, frankly state what had taken place, and demand an explanation.  This resolution she communicated in a low voice to Mrs. Morris, who opposed it as imprudent and ill-judged.

“Of course they will deny the charge,” she argued, “and by letting them know where the poor creature has taken shelter, you will again expose her to their cruelty.  Besides, you will get yourself into trouble.  My advice to you is to keep quiet until your husband returns, and then to assist the poor lady secretly to go to her friends in the country, who she says will gladly receive her.”