Morgan, in trust for the young person."
"Oh, that's right. What friends has she? Did you ever hear from
Mason?--perhaps they ought to know where she is."
"Mrs. Mason did tell me, ma'am, she was an orphan; with a
guardian who was noways akin, and who washed his hands of her
when she ran off. But Mrs. Mason was sadly put out, and went into
hysterics, for fear you would think she had not seen after her
enough, and that she might lose your custom; she said it was no
fault of hers, for the girl was always a forward creature,
boasting of her beauty, and saying how pretty she was, and
striving to get where her good looks could be seen and
admired,--one night in particular, ma'am, at a county ball; and
how Mrs. Mason had found out she used to meet Mr. Bellingham at
an old woman's house, who was a regular old witch, ma'am, and
lives in the lowest part of the town, where all the bad
characters haunt."
"There! that's enough," said Mrs. Bellingham sharply, for the
maid's chattering had outrun her tact; and in her anxiety to
vindicate the character of her friend Mrs. Mason by blackening
that of Ruth, she had forgotten that she a little implicated her
mistress's son, whom his proud mother did not like to imagine as
ever passing through a low and degraded part of the town.
"If she has no friends, and is the creature you describe (which
is confirmed by my own observation), the best place for her is,
as I said before, the Penitentiary.
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