Winifred was rather unwilling to leave her charge, but she was afraid of an argument on the subject which would waken Betty, so she slipped gently out of the room. She had eaten nothing since her twelve o'clock dinner, and felt herself refreshed by the delicate little supper which had been prepared for her by the motherly care of Lady Corbet. She went to the garden door to catch a breath of fresh air, but there seemed to be no air abroad. The heat was melting, and a low, heavy cloud brooded over the whole sky. "What a stifling heat!" thought Winifred, drawing a long breath. "I wonder if it is any fresher on the top of Holford heath? It seems as though one breath smelling of the furze would put new life into my heart." She drew another long breath, and went slowly up-stairs to Paulina's little chamber. She opened the door, and at first thought no one was in the room, but a closer inspection showed her Paulina, in her white night-dress, prostrate on the bare boards, her face hidden in her arms, and her whole body shaking with suppressed sobs. "My poor, dear child!" said Winifred, kneeling beside her. "Why are you here, when you should be in bed and asleep?" Paulina did not reply, save by her deeper sobs. "Even if you have done wrong, which I do not deny, you know there is forgiveness for the worst of sinners," continued Winifred, in soothing tones. "Do you not remember who it was that came into the world to save sinners?" "'Don't,' Mrs. Evans!" interrupted Paulina, in tones of agony. "You will kill me. For three long years I have been trying to make myself a Christian, and I am no nearer to it than when I began. I have fasted and prayed, and done penance, and thought upon death and judgment, till my head was like to burst, and all to no purpose. I shall never be prepared for them nor for heaven!" "Poor child!" said Winifred, soothingly, as Paulina dropped her head upon her arms with a fresh burst of sobs. "No wonder you are discouraged. Your efforts have been like your tapestry work. You have begun all wrong, and therefore it is no wonder that your labors have produced nothing but confusion. Do you remember what I told you about it—that you would never do anything with that piece, but you must begin anew?" "Yes!" answered Paulina, interested, as it were, in spite of herself. "And you found it so, did you not? You had to take all new materials—canvas, worsted, and silk—after you had tried two or three days to rectify your mistakes. After that you went on prosperously enough." "Well?" said Paulina. "Well, Paulina, you have made the same mistake in your religion. You have begun wrong, and thus you have gone on from bad to worse; and if you were to go on forever, you can never get to heaven in this way, because you are not in the way thither." "I don't know what you mean, Mrs. Winifred," said Paulina, both roused and piqued by this unexpected statement. "I don't know how one is to got to heaven except by being good."