When the latter entered her room, she found her lying upon the bed, with a face so pale and grief-stricken, that she could not help an exclamation of painful surprise.

“My dear madam, what has happened?” said she, as she took her hand.

Mrs. Marion was too much overcome by emotion to be able to speak for some moments.  Acquiring self-possession at length, she said, in a low, sad voice—­

“My heart is almost broken, Mrs. Darlington.  I feel crushed to the very ground.  How shall I speak of what I am suffering?”

Her voice quivered and failed.  But in a few moments she recovered herself again, and said, more calmly—­

“I need not tell you that my husband has been absent for a week; he went away in a moment of anger, vowing that he would never return.  Hourly have I waited since, in the hope that he would come back; but, alas!  I have thus far received from him neither word nor sign.”

Mrs. Marion here gave way to her feelings, and wept bitterly.

“Did he ever leave you before?” asked Mrs. Darlington, as soon as she had grown calm.

“Once.”

“How long did he remain away?”

“More than a year.”

“Have you friends?”

“I have no relative but an aunt, who is very poor.”

Mrs. Darlington sighed involuntarily.  On that very day she had been seriously examining into her affairs, and the result was a conviction that, under her present range of expenses, she must go behind-hand with great rapidity.  Mr. and Mrs. Marion were to pay fourteen dollars a weeks Thus far, nothing had been received from them; and now the husband had gone off and left his family on her hands.  She could not turn them off, yet how could she bear up under this additional burden!

All this passed through her mind in a moment, and produced the sigh which distracted her bosom.

“Do you not know where he has gone?” she asked, seeking to throw as much sympathy and interest in her voice as possible, and thus to conceal the pressure upon her own feelings which the intelligence had occasioned.

Mrs. Marion shook her head.  She knew that, in the effort to speak, her voice would fail her.

For nearly the space of a minute there was silence.  This was broken, at length, by Mrs. Marion, who again wept violently.  As soon as the passionate burst of feeling was over, Mrs. Darlington said to her in a kind and sympathizing voice—­

“Do not grieve so deeply.  You are not friendless altogether.  Though you have been with us only a short time, we feel an interest in you, and will not”—­

The sentence remained unfinished.  There was an impulse in Mrs. Darlington’s mind to proffer the unhappy woman a home for herself and children; but a sudden recollection of the embarrassing nature of her own circumstances checked the words on her tongue.

“I cannot remain a burden upon you,” quickly answered Mrs. Marion.  “But where can I go?  What shall I do?”