weak breath hurried, and the tears filled her "It cannot be."

eyes.

"It is quite true," said Nora, steadily. "That home I told you of on Friday in the park-you remember? How the sun was shining, and how happy everyone was !-that pretty home where I have been so happy all the Summer is mine no more. And the fortune I valued so, which was to make you well—I mean which gave me everything I wished for; and not only myself, but My fortune is gone, Helen, and my friends-true as they have been to me --can be friends to me no longer. Not that it is their fault. Oh, no! Don't look that question, Helen. They are true and good as ever, and-and will be kind to others. It is only I who must never join them again. But, oh! Helen, how can you trust me, when I dare not tell you why?"

"Nora, my darling," returned Helen, taking the girl's hot hands in hers, "if you tell me no other word, I trust you implicitly. Butthink a little, dear, before you answer me-have you been frightened at all, or deceived? Does no one-no single person know this resolution of yours?"

"No. If they knew, it could not be carried

me

upon

out," she answered, every word an effort to her, though she went bravely on. "It is only by not seeing them again that I can keep a solemn vow which I have made; and so, save one, who is very near to me, and has the first claim I may not tell you more, Helen. Oh, pray, pray trust me without! It is hard to me to bear a secret. I have never had any experience in secrets all my life, and I should betray it to them to anyone but you, whose life it cannot change, and who have always helped me

80."

"Will not Mr. Poynz know?" began Helen, wondering why the words came so readily, but never wondering why Nora stopped them in such strange subdued haste.

"He would know if he saw me. He-he would know all in a minute. I could not keep anything from him, Helen-not anything. And that is why I dare not see him. For it is not my secret, and he is never to know it; heof all men; he-most of all who-care for me."

"Do not pain yourself so cruelly to tell me, dear," pleaded Helen, purposely now avoiding any glance into the girl's face. "But did Doctor Armstrong advise you? Shall you not see him?"

"Never again-never again, I hope!" cried Nora, a sudden shudder running through her frame. "Oh, Helen, keep me away from him!"

"I will keep you with me always, if I may," said Helen, with the earnestness of a dying promise; as she turned at last and put her arms round the girl who had appealed to her in such wistful, child-like fashion. 66 I only want you to be quite sure, my darling, that you are not deceived. From the first, I saw how Doctor Armstrong had determined to win you; and I guessed that no trifling scruple of conscience could check him. If he has been frightening and grieving you, just

to

"All that he said was true," whispered Nora, brokenly and below her breath. "I know now that it was all true; but-oh, Helen, I wish you understood! I may never tell anyone-even that I am not what they think me; and so I may never speak to them, or see them. I have forfeited my wealth; and-I belong to no one. So, Helen”—with a faint, pitiful smile-" instead of having come to help you, I have come to beg a home with you; but only just until I can earn one for myself. I am used to poverty; I do not fear that. I only fear being, even for a time, a

burden to you, and—and being seen again by— those who belong to my old life."

"But it will be so dreary for you here, my darling, with no one but me."

"Oh, Helen, just think what it would be without you!

66

ORA, indeed, indeed, I cannot consent to that !"

NOR

It was late the same night, and Miss Archer and Nora at last were about to separate, after a long and almost cheerful conversation, which had not touched again upon the subject so near the heart of both. Nora had gone with Helen into the pretty freshly-decorated chamber behind the sitting-room, and had helped her to unpack, and now she was bidding her " good night," because her own room, she said, was up-stairs-far away in a cool, retired region.

"Nora, indeed, indeed, I cannot consent to