"'Yes,' said she, sitting down square in front of me; 'it is; I felt as if I had found a true man, when I first saw you, and I have asked you here to tell you a story, my story, and ask your help and advice. I am so earnest, so anxious to do thoroughly what I have undertaken, that I fear to overdo it; I need counsel, restraint; I can trust you. Won't you help me?" "'If I can; what is it that you want me to do, madam?' "'First of all, keep a secret, and next, protect or help protect, an innocent child.' "'Suppose I help the child, and you don't tell me the secret?' "'No, it concerns the child, sir; she is my child; I want her to grow up without knowing what her mother has done, or how she has lived and suffered; you wouldn't tell her that, would you?' "'No; certainly not!' "'Nor anyone else?' "'No.' "'You would judge her alone, forgetting her mother?' "'Yes.' "'Then I will tell you the story.' "She got up and changed the window blinds, so that the light shone on my face; I guess she wanted to study the effect of her words. "'I was born at Sacramento,' she began; 'my father was a well-to-do mechanic, and I his only child; I grew up pretty fair-looking, and my parents spent about all they could make to complete my education, especially in music, of which I was fond. When I was eighteen years old, I fell in love with a young man, the son of one of the rich merchants of San Francisco, where we had removed. Like many another foolish girl, I trusted too implicitly, and believed too easily, and soon found myself in a humiliating position, but trusted to the honor of my lover to stand by me. "'When I explained matters to him he seemed pleased, said he could fix that easy enough; we would get married at once and claim a secret marriage for some months past. "'He arranged that I should meet him the next evening, and go to an old priest in an obscure parish, and be married. "'I stood long hours on a corner, half dead with fear, that night, for a lover that never came. He's dead now, got run over in Oakland yard, that very night, as he was running away from me, and as I waited and shivered under the stars and the fire of my own conscience.' "'Did he stand on one track, to get out of the way of another train, and get struck?' I asked. "'Yes,' looking at me close. "'Did he have on a false moustache, and a good deal of money and securities in a satchel, and everybody think at first he was a burglar?' "'Yes; but how did you know that?' "'Because, I killed him.' "'You?' "'Yes; I ran an engine over him, couldn't make him hear or see me. He was the first man I ever killed; strange he should be _this_ particular man.'