It was to this effect:-- "Forgive me that I cannot be your wife, for my heart is given to another .-- Elizabeth Raklev." She folded the paper and fastened it with a pin for want of a wafer, and then quietly opening the door of the room where Madam Beck was sleeping, placed her lips close to her ear, and whispered her name.

Madam Beck woke up in some alarm when she saw Elizabeth standing before her fully dressed, and apparently prepared for a journey.
"Madam Beck," Elizabeth said, quietly, "I am going to confide something to you, and ask for your advice and assistance.

Your step-son has asked me to be his wife.

It was last Sunday--and I said yes; but now I have changed my mind, and am going back to my aunt, or farther away still, if you can tell me how; for I am afraid he will follow me." Madam Beck stared at her in mute amazement, and at first put on an incredulous and rather scornful expression; but as she came to feel that it might all be true, she raised herself involuntarily higher up in the bed.
"But--why do you come with this now, particularly in the middle of the night ?" she said, with a suspicious and searching look.
"Because he has written to his father about it to-day, and means to tell you and the rest to-morrow." "So--he has already written?
That was his object, then, in bringing you into the house here," Madam Beck added, after a pause, with some bitterness.
It seemed to strike her then that there was something noble in Elizabeth's conduct; and looking at her more kindly, she said-- "Yes, you are right.

It is best for you to go away--to some place where he will not find it so easy to reach you." She lapsed into thought again.