house and offering him the money he wanted.

I found him in my apartment. "Good God!" cried he; "where have you been
till this time of night?"

I told him frankly where I had been, and what had detained me. He was
thunder-struck. Instead of that storm of rage and invective which I
expected, he grew pale with consternation, and said, in a faint voice,--


"Jane, you have ruined me beyond redemption. Fatal, fatal rashness! It
was enough to have refused me a loan which, though useless to you, is as
indispensable to my existence as my heart's blood. Had you quietly lent me
the trifling pittance I asked, all might yet have been well,--my father's
peace have been saved and my own affairs been completely re-established."

All arrogance and indignation were now laid aside. His tone and looks
betokened the deepest distress. All the firmness, reluctance, and wariness
of my temper vanished in a moment. My heart was seized with an agony of
compunction. I came close to him, and, taking his hand involuntarily,
said, "Dear brother, forgive me."

Strange what influence calamity possesses in softening the character!
He made no answer, but, putting his arms around me, pressed me to his
breast, while tears stole down his cheek.

Now was I thoroughly subdued. I am quite an April girl, thou knowest,
Harry, and the most opposite emotions fill, with equal certainty, my eyes.
I could scarcely articulate, "Oh, my dear brother, forgive me. Take what
you ask. If it can be of any service to you, take all I have."