"Dear, I do with heart and soul. Believe it, and let me be your friend"
was the soft answer.

"God knows I need one!" sighed the poor woman, still holding fast the
only creature who had wholly won her. "Child, I am not good, but not so
bad that I dare not look in your innocent face and call you friend. I
never had one of my own sex. I never knew my mother; and no one ever saw
in me the possibility of goodness, truth, and justice but you. Trust and
love and help me, Octavia, and I will reward you with a better life, if
I can do no more."

"I will, and the new year shall be happier than the old."

"God bless you for that prophecy; may I be worthy of it."

Then as a bell warned them away, the rivals kissed each other tenderly,
and parted friends. As Mrs. Snowdon entered her room, she saw her
husband sitting with his gray head in his hands, and heard him murmur
despairingly to himself, "My life makes her miserable. But for the sin
of it I'd die to free her."

"No, live for me, and teach me to be happy in your love." The clear
voice startled him, but not so much as the beautiful changed face of the
wife who laid the gray head on her bosom, saying tenderly, "My kind and
patient husband, you have been deceived. From me you shall know all the
truth, and when you have forgiven my faulty past, you shall see how
happy I will try to make your future."