The ordeal to which she was thus committed, I must share.

As she advanced step by step upon her uncertain road, it would be my unhappy fate to advance with her, in terror of the same pitfalls, with our faces set towards the same precipice--slipping, fainting, experiencing agonies together.

She knew my secret, and I, alas! knew hers.

So I interpreted this intolerable, overwhelming blush.
Recoiling from the prospect, I buried my face in my hands, and so missed the surprising sight of this young girl, still in her teens, conquering a dismay which might well unnerve one of established years and untold experiences.

In a few minutes, as I was afterward told by my friends, her features had settled into a strange placidity, undisturbed by the levelled gaze of a hundred eyes.