Page:Stories after Nature.pdf/108

84 she had bestowed herself. They went to her with a brilliant equipage, and made her golden offers to return amongst them; but she scorned them all; and when they talked of the past, shed tears and was subdued. But when they exposed her to the people with whom she lived, and had induced them to drive her out, she laughed, out of her firmness, at their imbecility; and having no money, and nowhere to go, she wandered about and begged.

When Edward found this, he was satisfied; and consoled himself for the pain he had made her suffer, by his having been a participator in it. He watched where she went, threw a cloak round him, and passed by her, and she begged alms of him; but turning his face suddenly upon her, and opening his cloak, she shrieked a recognition, and fell, embracing his knees.

So he carried home the weak penitent, and married her that day. And though many a mind will not admit it, yet is the truth not the less, she lived respected and loved by the good and wise; reared an honourable family, and died, leaving the image of her virtue in the hearts of all her friends.