She paused irresolute for a moment, then continued: 

“I am going to tell you all, Sadie, for I know it is right you should learn the truth.  Dr. Stanley looked amazed when Mr. Willard spoke to me, and inquired, if I knew the man.  I told him I had simply been introduced to him, and he said, ’He is a person whose acquaintance is very undesirable; he is a drunkard and a gambler; he belongs to a good family, but he is their thorn in the flesh, because of his dissolute ways.’  Perhaps this sounds harsh, even unkind to you, but I am trying to do by you as I would by my own sister if I had one.  I don’t want you to spoil your life, Sadie.”

The girl had been growing more composed during Katherine’s revelations, and when she concluded she sat up on the bed, threw her handkerchief away and faced her.

“I am glad that you have told me this, Katherine,” she said, drawing a deep breath, “and I have longed, ever since I came to this ’house of peace’—­for it has been that to me—­to tell you this secret that has been eating my heart out.  I did continue to meet Ned on the sly, even after I promised you, last spring, that I would not.  I wrote him, as I told you I would, about going to Mr. Farnsworth and doing the square thing; but he only laughed at me and still insisted upon seeing me the same as ever.  I—­I really am fond of him, honey,” she confessed, a vivid blush suffusing her face.  “Ned has good qualities, in spite of his faults.  I know that he has been in the habit of drinking some, but we Southerners don’t mind that as much as you Northerners do.  I—­I didn’t know about his gambling—­that seems dreadful.  I know he thinks the world of me, for when my guardian said he was going to take me to Europe he was perfectly wild about it; so that is why I gave it up.  Then he wanted—­oh!  Katherine! how can I tell you—­“and the scarlet face went down upon the pillow again.

“Yes, dear, I suspected it—­I almost knew that he wanted you to marry him secretly, and you came very near consenting—­would have taken the irrevocable step perhaps if I had not asked you to come with me,” gently interposed her friend.

“Katherine!  What made you think that?” and the girl started up again, amazed.

“Oh! several things; your fits of abstraction, your ‘homesickness,’ your ‘wretchedness,’ and the remarkable reaction that followed your acceptance of my invitation.”

“Well, honey, it was true, and I shall always love you for saving me from that, for I knew it was wrong.  I was beginning to get my eyes open a little, though, and to feel that Ned should not have asked me to marry him in any such way; but I hardly knew which way to turn,” Sadie confessed, with downcast eyes.

“Of course, I am glad to have you with me; but perhaps going to Europe would have been the better plan.  It would have taken you out of his way,” Katherine thoughtfully observed.

“I couldn’t leave—­I—­I didn’t want to,” faltered her companion, and Katherine sighed as she saw that there was an even stronger attachment here than she had suspected.