56 JESSIES ACQUAINTANCE MADE,

“ And must I tell yon all?” asked she.

“ All, every incident from your earliest memory,”
returned he, passionately. ‘‘ Whatever concerns
you, interests me.”

Jessie heaved a deep sigh, and was silent for s
few moments.

“J have heard her say,” at length she began,
looking towards the old woman in the chair opposite,
“that my mother was the most beautiful of women,
and perhaps, also, the most unfortunate. She was
the daughter of a village schoolmaster, a man pos-
sessed of some little property ; and she,” said she,
again indicating the old woman opposite, “ was, I
fancy, his wife, and consequently is my grand-
mother; but that she never will confess, although
I have besought her on my knees. My mother was
loved, or rather courted, by a rich gentleman. She
loved him—oh, too well: he deserted her, and
her father, who was a very severe, although in
his way a very religious man, never would forgive
her error. He turned her, one wild autumn night,
out of doors. It thundered and lightened, and
was a night on which to lose one’s senses, or else
to do some horrid deed. Her mother prayed the
father to relent, and to open the door; for she
stayed wandering about the house till long after
midnight, begging and praying that he would not
be so hard-hearted and so cruel—but it was all in
vain! He was one of those men who think
that it was the woman only who fell; he thought
that the man was a superior being, whose place
in creation was to domineer over woman, and
punish her, and subject her as much as he could.
It was a sort of virtue in his eyes, and so he