Do I ask too much ?" "Tell me of Hilda," replied the sculptor; "tell me only that she is safe, and keep back what else you will." "Hilda is safe," said Miriam.

"There is a Providence purposely for Hilda, as I remember to have told you long ago.

But a great trouble--an evil deed, let us acknowledge it has spread out its dark branches so widely, that the shadow falls on innocence as well as guilt.

There was one slight link that connected your sweet Hilda with a crime which it was her unhappy fortune to witness, but of which I need not say she was as guiltless as the angels that looked out of heaven, and saw it too.
No matter, now, what the consequence has been.

You shall have your lost Hilda back, and--who knows ?--perhaps tenderer than she was." "But when will she return ?" persisted the sculptor; "tell me the when, and where, and how!" "A little patience.