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274 the trouble that they give us, and that is the reason why I always give as much as I can!" So saying, she hurried off; but the tears were in her eyes, and her hand trembled as it drew her cloak round her. She was soon in the dimly-lighted streets, made more dreary by a small heavy rain that was falling. Life is full of strange contrasts; and who that could have seen—weary, yet walking as fast as she could, for she had a long way to go; faint, for of late she had debarred herself common necessaries; cold, for the rain soon pierced her thin cloak—who would have believed that she was the brilliant actress who, not an hour since, was the gaze of every eye, while the whole house rang with applause?

"Ah, there is still light!" muttered she, as she stopped before a shop, whose shutters were, however, closed, but through which came the glimmer from within. She paused for a moment on the threshold, as if reluctant to enter. "The only memorial I shall soon have of