One had fallen asleep; the other two were quarrelling feebly, when I ventured to move.

They tried to get up, to stop me; but I drew the bolt, and fled into the darkness where I knew they could not follow.
"I reached Mr.Strafford's door, and we were received with all kindness; but the fright, the sudden exposure to cold night air, after being for so many hours shut up in a stifling room, and perhaps, added to all a few drops of spirit which had been forced into your mouth, brought on you a sudden, and to me most terrible, illness.

It was your first; I had never seen you suffer, and I thought you would die; that God would take you from me as the last and crowning punishment for my disobedience.

In the great anguish of this idea, I wrote to my father--wrote by your bedside while you slept, and confessing all my folly, implored his forgiveness, as if that would preserve my child's life.

You recovered, and in my joy I almost forgot that the letter had been written.