It was in vain that she turned from the idea presented with them: it grew more and more distinct each moment.

Yes, there was a way of relief opened for her mother, of safety for the family, and Miriam saw it plainly, yet shuddered as she looked, and closed her eyes, like one about to leap from a fearful height.
Hour after hour Miriam lay awake, pondering the new aspect which things had assumed, and gazing down the fearful abyss into which, in a spirit of self-devotion, she was seeking to find the courage to leap.
"I am rich." Ever and anon these words sounded in her ears.

As the wife of Burton, she could at once lift her mother out of her present unhappy situation.

Thus, before the hour of midnight came and went, she thought.

He had offered her his hand.