than a knowledge of her misconduct; and for the few days she remained under their roof, and while she was preparing a disguise for her perilous journey, she affected slight sickness and derangement. They were alarmed and anxious, and insisted on making a bed for her in their room: this somewhat embarrassed her proceedings; but, on the night of her escape, she told them, with a determined manner, that she could only sleep in her own bed, and alone in her own room. They did not resist her; they never had. Mary kissed them when she bade them good-night with unusual tenderness. They went sorrowing to their beds. She wrote a few incoherent lines, addressed to them, praying for their forgiveness; expressing her gratitude and her love; and telling them, that life before her seemed a long and a dark road, and she did not wish to go any further in it, and begging them not to search for her, for in one hour the waves would roll over her. She placed the scroll on her table, crept out of her window, and left for ever the protecting roof of her kind old parents.
When they awoke to a knowledge of their loss, they were overwhelmed with grief. Their neighbours flocked about them, to offer their assistance and consolation; and though some of the most penetrating among them, suspected the cause of the poor girl's desperation, more forbearing and kind than persons usually are, in such circumstances, they spared the old people the light of their conjectures.
