All this misery has come on her from one act of folly and selfishness years ago.

How many lives are ruined, how many families broken up, by one false step! If ever a poor soul has expiated her own offence, she has.

Let us hope that brighter times are in store for her.

Let us have done with moral reflections; I am no hand at that work.

One more dark scene, reader, and then .-- * * * * * It was one wild dreary day in the spring; a day of furious wind and cutting rain; a day when few passengers were abroad, and when the boatmen were gathered in knots among the sheltered spots upon the quays, waiting to hear of disasters at sea; when the ships creaked and groaned at the wharfs, and the harbour was a sheet of wind-driven foam, and the domain was strewed with broken boughs.