The landlady, moved by her example, accepted half the weekly rent of my room.

The doctor, with the Christian kindness of his profession, would take no fees.

All that the tenderest care could accomplish was lavished on me; my youth and my constitution did the rest.

I struggled back to life--and then I took up my needle again.
"It may surprise you that I should have failed (having an actress for my dearest friend) to use the means of introduction thus offered to me to try the stage--especially as my childish training had given me, in some small degree, a familiarity with the Art.
"I had only one motive for shrinking from an appearance at the theatre--but it was strong enough to induce me to submit to any alternative that remained, no matter how hopeless it might be.

If I showed myself on the public stage, my discovery by the man from whom I had escaped would be only a question of time.