Pagina 787 di 896

"My memory is still accurate, but I cannot write the words of our

conversation. I suspect that I am watched more closely than I

was, and I know not at what times I may be watched. She had in

part suspected, and in part discovered, the main facts of the

cruel story, of her husband's share in it, and my being resorted

to. She did not know that the girl was dead. Her hope had been,

she said in great distress, to show her, in secret, a woman's

sympathy. Her hope had been to avert the wrath of Heaven from a

House that had long been hateful to the suffering many.

"She had reasons for believing that there was a young sister

living, and her greatest desire was, to help that sister. I could

tell her nothing but that there was such a sister; beyond that, I

knew nothing. Her inducement to come to me, relying on my

confidence, had been the hope that I could tell her the name and

place of abode. Whereas, to this wretched hour I am ignorant of

both.

*****