He rose, stirred the fire, resettled himself, and, after a pause, said emphatically: "Alice, I will be your friend.

Let me believe you will deserve it." Alice bent her graceful head, and seeing that he had sunk into an abstracted silence, she thought it time for her to withdraw.
"She is, indeed, beautiful," said the banker, almost aloud, when he was alone; "and the old lady is right--she is as innocent as if she had not fallen.

I wonder--" Here he stopped short, and walked to the glass over the mantelpiece, where he was still gazing on his own features, when Mrs.Leslie returned.
"Well, sir," said she, a little surprised at this seeming vanity in so pious a man.
The banker started.

"Madam, I honour your penetration as much as your charity; I think that there is so much to be feared in letting all the world know this young female's past error, that, though I dare not advise, I cannot blame, your concealment of it." "But, sir, your words have sunk deep into my thoughts; you said every deviation from truth was a forfeiture of duty." "Certainly; but there are some exceptions.

The world is a bad world, we are born in sin; and the children of wrath.