And, besides, what is Leon Dexter to you now?
Only as another man ?" Jessie arose without speaking, and kissing her aunt in token of love, passed quickly from the room.
"Dear! dear! what a strange child it is!" said Aunt Loring, as she wiped off a tear which had fallen from Jessie's eyes upon her cheek.
"Just like her mother for all the world in some things"-- the last part of the sentence was in a qualifying tone--"though," she went on, "her mother hadn't anything like her trials to endure.

Oh, that Dexter! if I only had my will of him!" And Aunt Loring, in her rising indignation, actually clenched her hand and shook it in the air.
"It has come to this at last," said Jessie as soon as she had gained the sanctuary of her little chamber, where she could think without interruption.

"And I knew it must come; but oh, how I have dreaded the event! Is he innocent in the sight of heaven?
Ah, if I could only have that question answered in the affirmative, a crushing weight would be lifted from my soul.

If he is not innocent, the stain of his guilt rests upon my garments! He is not alone responsible.

Who can tell the consequences of a single false step in life ?" From a small hanging shelf she took a Bible, and opening to a marked page, read over three or four verses with earnest attention.
"I can see no other meaning," she said with a painful sigh, closing the book and restoring it to its place on the shelf.