the gangplank, Martha beside him, holding out her arms for the child, cuddling it to her

uldered her cross and must bear its weight alone and in her own way. "You don't know what it is to see a face from home! I am so glad to get here. But you

a timid woman in crossing a narrow bridge span

care of the baby herself, and why she had brought no nurse with her. She saw his meaning, but she did not explain her weakness or offer any explanation of the cause of her appe

g lids, the drawn, pallid skin and telltale furrows that had cut their way deep into her cheeks. Her eyes, too, had lost their lustre, and her step lacked the spring and vigor of her old self. The

ef to her, and that at first she had thought of remaining with her, but that their affairs, as he knew, had become so involved at home that she feared their means of living

could not care for it, and

he crib that had sheltered Lucy in the old days, the nei

cat in a garret, and down at our house we ain't much better. And so that Bunc

f Jane's hands into his own an

Miss Jane, since you've been gone. I have felt it, and so has e

she said to her son. Her hope was that the care of the child would so absorb Jane th

t noble accomplishment, my dear. My grandmother, who was an Erskine, you know, played divinely on the harp, and many of my ancestors, especially the Dagworthys, were accomplished musicians. Your sister will look lovely bending over a harp.

e to shake each one by the hand. Was Lucy so in love with the life abroad that she would nev

y all agreed that it was a healthy, hearty, and most beautiful baby; just the k

oreigner at that, when there were any quantity of babies up and down the shore that could be had for the asking. The little creature was, no doubt, helpless, and appealed to Miss Jane's sympathies, but why bring it home at all? Were there not pla

he sewing societies and church gatherings, one member in go

she used to toddle up to my house and I baked cookies for her. I've seen her many a time feed the dog with what I give her, just because she said h

n-"especially when mercy and kindness is to be shown. Some poor little outcast, no doubt, with no one to take care of it, and so this grand woman brings it home to nurse a

in the hearing of half the congregation, furnished the key to the mystery, and so for

she thought of the pastor's explanation the more

village a-guessin' as to who they is and where they come from. I don't believe a word of this outcast yarn. Guess Miss Lucy is all right, and she knows enough to stay away when all this tomfoolery'

-some friction of ill-feeling, perhaps, over a secret sin that cannot be smothered, try as we may; next a hot, blistering tongue of flame creeping stealthily; then a burst of scorching candor and the roar that ends in ruin. So

she was of him, and how she had tried to reform him, the probability was that she had met him in Paris. Doubts having been expressed that no woman of Jane Cobden's position would go to any such lengths to oblige so young a fellow as Bart Holt, the details of their intimacy were passed from mouth to mouth, and when this was ag

good-for-nothin' or that she's ever laid eyes on him since. Lucy is what took her. She's one o' them flyaways. I see that when she was home, and there warn't no peace up to the Cobdens' house till they'd taken her somewheres where she could git all the runnin' round she wante

Archie. That mystery still remained unsolved. Those of her own class who knew Jane intimately admire

m gave additional license to their tongues; they could never be called in question by anybody who overheard, and were therefore safe to discuss the situation at their will. Condensed into illogical shape, the story was that Jane had met a foreigner who had deserted her, leaving her to care for the child alone; that Lucy had re

ffront Miss Jane with their suspicions, but Martha was different. If they could irritate her by s

ors stopped Martha on the road and sent

her breath almost gone from her run to the house. "I laughed at it and said the

d anything from him?" asked Jane. The fe

never come back here ag'in.

then, is it?" cried

head in answer to

ed Jane, nervous

rchie a

asked Jane, her voic

, and that ye're afraid t

for support and then sa

s so?" s

s and hide-by-nights, I think, started it. Pokeberry

g at Martha wit

dare

oin' to make it hard. It's nobody's business, but that don't sati

while I have life left in

won't keep 'e

another coursed through her with lightning rapidity-indignation at the charge, horror at the thought that any of her friends migh

of parting in Paris. She remembered Lucy's willingness to give up the child forever, and so cover up all traces of her sin, and her own immediate determination to risk everything for her sister

be so wicked? But I am glad it is I who must take the brunt of it all. If t