"So help me God. HANNAH SMITH."
As Hannah Smith added those words, "So help me God," a deep flush
came to her pale face and the thin hand that held the pen trembled.
"There, Cecile," she said, "you must keep that little piece of paper
even more carefully than the money, for anyone who secured this might
claim the money. I will sew it into your frock myself." Which the
good soul did; and then the old maid blessed the child, and she went
away.
Long after Cecile had left her, Miss Smith sat on by the table--that
purse untouched by her side.
"A sudden and sore temptation," she said, at last, aloud. "But it
did not last. So help me God, it will never return--SO HELP ME GOD."
Then she fell on her knees and began to pray, and as she prayed she
wept.
It was nearly an hour before the lonely Englishwoman rose from her
knees. When she did so, she took up the purse to put it by. In doing
this, she for the first time noticed the letter which had arrived
when she was out. She opened it, read it hastily through. Then Miss
Smith, suddenly dropping both purse and letter fell on her knees again.
The letter contained the offer of a much better situation as English
teacher than the one she had been deprived of. Thus did God send both
the temptation and the deliverance almost simultaneously.
CHAPTER XIII.
A MIDNIGHT SEARCH.
Anton had to wait a long time, until he felt both cross and
impatient, and when at last Cecile and Maurice returned to the funny
little attic in the Cite, Joe almost immediately followed them.
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