She gazed at me in admiration. "How beautifully you speak! Your words are like knives--they cut into my heart. You have brought my guilt home to me, O, how clearly! Yes, I _am_ guilty! I confess it! I yield; I cannot struggle with such a skilful enemy as you. O, if you knew what relief you have given me! I was so weary! I am glad you were not weak--I am glad you had no pity upon me. I am sick of the deception I have been compelled--yes, compelled!--to practice against a good man. And he is not the only one--there have been others, miserable woman that I am. O, what an unhappy weary life mine has been! I have been driven and driven by a villain who has preyed upon me since I was a child. Ah, if you knew the whole truth, if I could lay bare my heart, you would not utterly condemn me! You would say, 'Poor child! she has been more sinned against than sinning!' Are not those the words used to persons who have been innocently led into error? And they are true of me! If I have sinned I have been driven to it, and I have been sinned against--indeed, indeed I have! But I don't want to turn you in my favour. You must do your duty, and I must meet my punishment, now that everything is discovered. It might have been different with me if it had been my happiness to meet a man like you when I was young. I am young still--I look it, don't I? and it makes me feel all the more wicked. But I feel a hundred years old--quite a hundred--and O, so tired and worn out! I could have looked up to you, I could have respected you, and you would have taught me what was right and what was wrong. But it was not to be--and it is too late now, is it not? Yes, I see in your face that it is too late. What are you going to do with me? You will not be too, too cruel? I am wicked, I feel--you have made me feel it, and I am so thankful to you! but unless I make away with myself (and I am afraid to do that; I should be afraid to die)--unless I did that, which I should never have the courage to do, I shall live a good many years yet. My fate is in your hands. What are you going to do with me?" I did not attempt to interrupt her, nor to stem her singularly-worded appeal. "Your fate," I said, "is in your own hands, not in mine. I can show you how you can avoid an open exposure, and secure for yourself an income sufficiently large to live in comfort all your life." "Can you?" she exclaimed, clasping her hands. "O, how good you are!" "The line of action," I said, "I advise you to adopt is the best for all parties implicated in this miserable business, and is the most merciful both to you and my father."