indignant tone.

"No, I did not," was Mrs. Appleton's calm reply.

"Not after such an insult! Pardon me--but I should call it a breach
of politeness for any one to remain in the house of another under
such circumstances."

"But, Louisa, you must remember that there are exceptions to every
general rule; and also, that the same act may be good or bad,
according to the end which the actor has in view. If I had proposed
to myself any mere sinister and selfish end in remaining in the
house of my friend after such an unkind and to me, at the time,
cruel repulse, I should have acted wrong; but my end was to benefit
my friend--to disabuse her of a most painful mistake, which I could
only do by meeting her, and letting her ears take in the tones of my
voice, that she might thus judge of my sincerity."

Louisa did not reply, and Mrs. Appleton continued,--

"'Tell Mrs.----,' said I to the servant, 'that I am very anxious to
see her, and that she must not refuse me an interview.' In a few
minutes she returned with the positive refusal of Mrs.----to see me.
There was one thing that I did not want to do--one thing that I
hesitated to do, and that was to force myself upon my estranged
friend by intruding upon her, even in her own chamber, where she had
retired to be secure from my importunity. But I looked to the end I
had in view. 'Is not the end a good one?' I said, as I mused over
the unpleasant position in which I found myself. 'Will not even
Mrs.----thank me for the act after she shall have perceived her