She was
the gentlest, the most unselfish creature I have ever met with.
We lived together like sisters. More than once in the dark hours
when the thought of self-destruction comes to a desperate woman,
the image of my poor devoted friend, left to suffer alone, rose
in my mind and restrained me. You will hardly understand it, but
even we had our happy days. When she or I had a few shillings to
spare, we used to offer one another little presents, and enjoy
our simple pleasure in giving and receiving as keenly as if we
had been the most reputable women living.
"One day I took my friend into a shop to buy her a ribbon--only a
bow for her dress. She was to choose it, and I was to pay for it,
and it was to be the prettiest ribbon that money could buy.
"The shop was full; we had to wait a little before we could be
served.
"Next to me, as I stood at the counter with my companion, was a
gaudily-dressed woman, looking at some handkerchiefs. The
handkerchiefs were finely embroidered, but the smart lady was
hard to please. She tumbled them up dis dainfully in a heap, and
asked for other specimens from the stock in the shop. The man, in
clearing the handkerchiefs out of the way, suddenly missed one.
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