SUSAN GRAY. 77

God had heard my prayer, and, at that mo.
ment, gave me greater courage and greater
power to resist temptation, than 1 should have
had, had I trusted in my own strength.

As the Captain walked up to me, I stepped
back, and said, “ Sir, if your business is with
my mistress, she is not at home.”

«My business is not with her, Susan,” he
said, “ but with you;” and then he said some
very fine things in my praise.

But I looked very gravely indeed at him, and
answered, ‘You can have nothing to say to
me, Sir, and I must beg you to go away, and
leave me this moment.”

“You are very cruel, Susan,” said he; ‘you
treat me as if yon hated me.” And then he
went on to tell me how much he loved me, and
many other false things.

“Sir,” said I, “if you loved me, as you say
you do, or, indeed, if you had that regard for
me, which every one ought to have for a fellow-
creature, you would not give me the pain and
trouble which your visits cause me. I am a
poor girl, without a friend; next to the favour
of God, my good name is most dear and most
valuable to me. If you were to be seen here
at this late hour, or, indeed, at any hour, my
character would be gone, and 1 should then
lose all that 1 depend upon for an honest
livelihood.”

“ Must I never see you, Susan?” said he:
“if I thought that I was to be parted from you
for ever, I should never be happy again.”

‘* As to that, Sir,” said I, “I do not pretend

G3