“Yes, even so small an amount as that.  But the sum might as well be thousands.  I cannot command it.”

“You can, uncle!” replied Jessie, with a glow of exultation on her cheek, and a spirit of joy in her voice. “I have the money.  Oh! it is the happiest hour of my life!”

And sinking forward, she laid her now weeping face upon the breast of her uncle.  Her tears were the out-gushing waters of gladness.

“You have the money, child?” said Mr. Hartman, after the lapse of a few moments.  “Where did you get it?”

“I have had no need to spend my salary.”

“Your salary!  Have you saved it all?”

“Every dollar.  I had clothing sufficient, and there was no other want to take it from me.  Dear uncle, how happy it makes me to think that I have it in my power to aid you!  Would that the sum was tens of thousands!”

Mr. Hartman, as soon as the first surprise was over, said, with evident emotion—­

“Jessie, I cannot express how much this incident has affected me.  But, deeply grateful to you as I feel for such an evidence of your love, I must push back the hand that would force this aid upon me.  I will not be unjust to you.  I will not take your hard earnings to run the risk of losing them.”

A shadow passed over the face of Jessie, and her voice was touched with something like grief as she replied—­

“How can you speak to me thus, uncle?  How can you push back my hand when, in love, it seeks to smooth the pillow upon which your troubled head is resting?  Would you deny me a higher gratification than I have ever known?  No—­no—­you cannot!”

Mr. Hartman was bewildered.  He felt as if it would be a kind of sacrilege to take the money of his niece, yet how could he positively refuse to do so?  Apart from the necessity of his circumstances, there was the cruelty of doing violence to the generous love that had so freely tendered relief.  In the end, all objections had to yield, and Mr. Hartman was saved from a second disaster, which would have entirely prostrated him, by the money that Jessie had earned and saved.

A short time after the occurrence of this circumstance, the Freemans gave a large party.  Mrs. Carlton, who was present, said to Mrs. Freeman, an hour after the company had assembled—­

“Where is Miss Hampton?  I’ve been looking for her all the evening.  Isn’t she well?”

“What Miss Hampton do you mean?” asked Mrs. Freeman, drawing herself up with an air cold and dignified.

“Miss Jessie Hampton,” replied Mrs. Carlton.

“Sure enough!” said a young man, who was sitting by, and who had been attentive to Fanny Freeman; “where is Miss Hampton?  I haven’t seen her for a long time.  What can have become of her?  Is she dead, or is she married?”

“Her uncle, I suppose you know, failed in business, and has become poor,” replied Mrs. Carlton.

“True.  I was perfectly aware of that, but didn’t reflect that poverty was a social crime.  And is it possible that so lovely a girl as Jessie Hampton has been excluded from the circle she so graced with her presence, because of this change in her uncle’s circumstances?”