The Masked Bridal
papers, and, upon answering it in person, succeeded in obtaining the situation with the young lawyer already mentioned. Every day spent in her presence only served to make him admire her the more; and, before the week was out, he had altogether lost his heart to her. When Saturday evening arrived, he paid her with the golden coin which was destined to bring fresh sorrow upon her, and she went out from his presence with a strange feeling of pride and independence over the knowledge that she had earned it with her own hands, and henceforth would be able to provide for her own and her mother's comfort. But Royal Bryant had been conscience-smitten when he saw her beautiful face light up with mingled pride and pleasure as he laid that tiny piece of gold in her palm. He would gladly have doubled the amount; but five dollars had been the sum agreed upon for that first week's work, and he feared that he would wound her pride by offering her a gratuity. So he had told her that she would be worth more to him the next week, and that he would continue to increase her wages in proportion as she acquired speed and proficiency in her work. Thus she had started forth, that dreary Saturday night, with a comparatively light heart, to redeem her watch, before going home to tell her mother her good news. But, alas! how disastrously the day had closed! "Come, miss," impatiently remarked the officer, as she sat with bowed head, her face covered with her hands, "get on your things! I've no time to be fooling away, and must run you into camp before it gets any later." "Oh, what do you mean?" cried Edith, starting wildly to her feet. "Where are you going to take me?" "To the station-house, of course, where you'll stay until Monday, when you'll be taken to court for your examination," was the gruff reply. "Oh, no! I can never spend two nights in such a place!" moaned the nearly frantic girl, with a shiver of horror. "I have done no intentional wrong," she continued, lifting an appealing look to the man's face. "That money was given to me for some work that I have been doing this week, and if any one is answerable for it being counterfeit, it should be the person who paid it to me." "Who paid you the money?" the officer demanded. "A lawyer for whom I have been copying--Mr. Royal Bryant; his office is at No. ---- Broadway." "Then you'll have to appeal to him. But of course it's too late now to find him at his office. Where does he live?" "I do not know," sighed Edith, dejectedly. "I have only been with him one week, and did not once hear him mention his residence.""That's a pity, miss," returned the officer, in a gentler tone, for he began to be moved by her beauty and distress. The condition of the invalid, who had fallen back weak and faint in her chair when he 
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