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"It is,' cried the girl, writhing in the agony of her mind: I cannot leave him now! I could not be his death."

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Why should you be?' asked Rose.

Nothing could save him,' cried the girl. 'If I told others what I have told you, and led to their being taken, he would be sure to die. He is the boldest, and has been so cruel.'

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"Is it possible," cried Rose, that, for such a man as this, you can resign every future hope, and the certainty of immediate rescue? It is madness."

"I don't know what it is,' answered the girl: 'I only know that it is so; and not with me alone, but with hundreds of others, as bad and wretched as myself. I must go back. Whether it is God's wrath for the wrong I have done, I do not know: but I am drawn back to him through every suffering and ill-usage; and should be, I believe, if I knew that I was to die by his hand at last.'

"What am I to do?' said Rose. 'I should not let you depart from me thus.'

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“You should, lady, and I know you will,' rejoined the girl, rising. You will not stop my going, because I have trusted in your goodness, and forced no promise from you, as I might have done.'

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"Of what use, then, is the communication you have made?' said Rose. This mystery must be investigated, or how will its disclosure to me benefit Oliver, whom you are anxious to serve?'

"You must have some kind gentleman about you that will hear it as a secret, and advise you what to do,' rejoined the girl.

"But where can I find you again, when it is necessary?' asked Rose. I do not seek to know where these dreadful people live; but where will you be walking, or passing, at any settled period from this time?'

"Will you promise me that you will have my secret strictly kept, and come alone, or with the only other person that knows it, and that I shall not be watched or followed?' asked the girl.

"I promise you solemnly,' answered Rose.

"Every Sunday night, from eleven until the clock. strikes twelve,' said the girl, without hesitation, 'I will walk on London Bridge, if I am alive.'

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"Stay another moment,' interposed Rose, as the girl moved hurriedly towards the door. Think once again on your own condition, and the opportunity you have of escaping from it. You have a claim on me, not only as the voluntary bearer of this intelligence, but as a woman lost, almost beyond redemption. Will you return to this gang of robbers, and to this man, when a word can save you? What fascination is it that can take you back, and make you cling to wickedness and misery? Oh! is there no chord in your heart that I can touch? Is there nothing left to which I can appeal against this terrible infatuation?'

"When ladies as young and good and beautiful as

you are,' replied the girl steadily, 'give away your hearts, love will carry you all lengths, even such as you, who have home, friends, other admirers, every thing to fill them. When such as I, who have no certain roof but the coffin-lid, and no friend in sickness or death but the hospital-nurse, set our rotten hearts on any man, and let him fill the place that has been a blank through all our wretched lives, who can hope to cure us? Pity us, lady, -pity us for having only one feeling of the woman left, and for having that turned, by a heavy judgment, from a comfort and a pride into a new means of violence and suffering.'

"You will,' said Rose after a pause, 'take some money from me, which may enable you to live without dishonesty, at all events until we meet again?'

"Not a penny,' replied the girl, waving her hand.

"Do not close your heart against all my efforts to help you,' said Rose, stepping gently forward. I wish to serve you, indeed.'

"You would serve me best, lady,' replied the girl, wringing her hands, if you could take my life at once; for I have felt more grief to think of what I am tonight than I ever did before; and it would be something not to die in the same hell in which I have lived. God bless you, sweet lady, and send as much happiness on your head as I have brought shame on mine!'

"Thus speaking, and sobbing aloud, the unhappy creature turned away; while Rose Maylie, overpowered

by this extraordinary interview, which had more the semblance of a rapid dream than an actual occurrence, sank into a chair, and endeavored to collect her wandering thoughts.

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Space forbids, in this chapter, further selection from this soul-reaching novel, save that about the wicked Jew's last night on earth, just before he was about to meet the penalty so richly deserved. Shakspeare's Jew Shylock, and the Jew Fagin of Dickens, will ever live in literature as ghastly warnings to those who would be wealthy at whatever cost, weighing honor and integrity in the balance against gold and silver.

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As one reads the graphic word-picture of the departed novelist, one seems to see the court-room, the prison, the scaffold.

"The court was paved from floor to roof with human faces. Inquisitive and eager eyes peered from every inch of space. From the rail before the dock, away into the sharpest angle of the smallest corner in the galleries, all looks were fixed upon one man, the Jew. Before him and behind; above, below, on the right, and on the left: he seemed to stand surrounded by a firmament, all bright with gleaming eyes.

"He stood there, in all this glare of living light, with one hand resting on the wooden slab before him, the other held to his ear, and his head thrust forward to enable him to catch with greater distinctness every word

that fell from the presiding judge, who was delivering his charge to the jury. At times, he turned his eyes sharply upon them, to observe the effect of the slightest feather-weight in his favor, and, when the points against him were stated with terrible distinctness, looked towards his counsel, in mute appeal that he would, even then, urge something in his behalf. Beyond these manifestations of anxiety, he stirred not hand or foot. He had scarcely moved since the trial began; and, now that the judge ceased to speak, he still remained in the same strained attitude of close attention, with his gaze bent on him as though he listened still.

"A slight bustle in the court recalled him to himself. Looking round, he saw that the jurymen had turned together, to consider of their verdict. As his eyes wandered to the gallery, he could see the people rising above each other to see his face,- some hastily applying their glasses to their eyes, and others whispering their neighbors with looks expressive of abhorrence. A few there were who seemed unmindful of him, and looked only to the jury, in impatient wonder how they could delay. But in no one face—not even among the women, of whom there were many there could he read the faintest sympathy with himself, or any feeling but one of all-absorbing interest that he should be condemned.

"As he saw all this in one bewildered glance, the death-like stillness came again; and, looking back, he

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