locked. If you look in, you'll see barred windows, guarded fire,
muffled walls, and other sights to chill your blood, when you
remember all those dreadful things were meant for me."

"Don't speak, don't think of them! Don't talk any more; let me do
something to comfort you, for my heart is broken with all this,"
cried Christie, panic-stricken at the picture Helen's words had
conjured up.

"I must go on! There is no rest for me till I have tried to lighten
this burden by sharing it with you. Let me talk, let me wear myself
out, then you shall help and comfort me, if there is any help and
comfort for such as I. Now I can tell you all about my Edward, and
you'll listen, though mamma forbade it. Three years ago my father
died, and we came here. I was well then, and oh, how happy!"

Clasping her hands above her head, she stood like a beautiful, pale
image of despair; tearless and mute, but with such a world of
anguish in the eyes lifted to the smiling picture opposite that it
needed no words to tell the story of a broken heart.

"How I loved him!" she said, softly, while her whole face glowed for
an instant with the light and warmth of a deathless passion. "How I
loved him, and how he loved me! Too well to let me darken both our
lives with a remorse which would come too late for a just atonement.
I thought him cruel then,--I bless him for it now. I had far rather
be the innocent sufferer I am, than a wretched woman like my mother.
I shall never see him any more, but I know he thinks of me far away
in India, and when I die one faithful heart will remember me."