Mary remained in joyous spirits after her victorious matching ofbrains against a lawyer of high standing in his profession. Forthe time being, conscience was muted by gratified ambition. Herthoughts just then were far from the miseries of the past, withtheir evil train of consequences in the present. But that pastwas soon to be recalled to her with a vividness most terrible.

　　She had entered the telephone-booth, which she had caused to beinstalled out of an extra closet of her bedroom for the sake ofgreater privacy on occasion, and it was during her absence fromthe drawing-room that Garson again came into the apartment,seeking her. On being told by Aggie as to Mary's whereabouts, hesat down to await her return, listening without much interest tothe chatter of the adventuress.... It was just then that the maidappeared.

　　"There's a girl wants to see Miss Turner," she explained.

　　The irrepressible Aggie put on her most finically elegant air.

　　"Has she a card?" she inquired haughtily, while the maidtittered appreciation.

　　"No," was the answer. "But she says it's important. I guess thepoor thing's in hard luck, from the look of her," the kindlyFannie added.

　　"Oh, then she'll be welcome, of course," Aggie declared, andGarson nodded in acquiescence. "Tell her to come in and wait,Fannie. Miss Turner will be here right away." She turned toGarson as the maid left the room. "Mary sure is an easy boob,"she remarked, cheerfully. "Bless her soft heart!"A curiously gentle smile of appreciation softened the immobilityof the forger's face as he again nodded assent.

　　"We might just as well pipe off the skirt before Mary gets here,"Aggie suggested, with eagerness.

　　A minute later, a girl perhaps twenty years of age stepped justwithin the doorway, and stood there with eyes downcast, after oneswift, furtive glance about her. Her whole appearance was that ofdejection. Her soiled black gown, the cringing posture, thepallor of her face, proclaimed the abject misery of her state.

　　Aggie, who was not exuberant in her sympathies for any one otherthan herself, addressed the newcomer with a patronizinginflection, modulated in her best manner.

　　"Won't you come in, please?" she requested.

　　The shrinking girl shot another veiled look in the direction ofthe speaker.

　　"Are you Miss Turner?" she asked, in a voice broken by nervousdismay.

　　"Really, I am very sorry," Aggie replied, primly; "but I am onlyher cousin, Miss Agnes Lynch. But Miss Turner is likely to beback any minute now.""Can I wait?" came the timid question.

　　"Certainly," Aggie answered, hospitably. "Please sit down."As the girl obediently sank down on the nearest chair, Garsonaddressed her sharply, so that the visitor started uneasily atthe unexpected sound.

　　"You don't know Miss Turner?""No," came the faint reply.

　　"Then, what do you want to see her about?"There was a brief pause before the girl could pluck up courageenough for an answer. Then, it was spoken confusedly, almost ina whisper.

　　"She once helped a girl friend of mine, and I thought--Ithought----""You thought she might help you," Garson interrupted.

　　But Aggie, too, possessed some perceptive powers, despite thefact that she preferred to use them little in ordinary affairs.

　　"You have been in stir--prison, I mean." She hastily correctedthe lapse into underworld slang.

　　Came a distressed muttering of assent from the girl.

　　"How sad!" Aggie remarked, in a voice of shocked pity for one soinconceivably unfortunate. "How very, very sad!"This ingenuous method of diversion was put to an end by theentrance of Mary, who stopped short on seeing the limp figurehuddled in the chair.

　　"A visitor, Agnes?" she inquired.

　　At the sound of her voice, and before Aggie could hit on afittingly elegant form of reply, the girl looked up. And now,for the first time, she spoke with some degree of energy, albeitthere was a sinister undertone in the husky voice.

　　"You're Miss Turner?" she questioned.

　　"Yes," Mary said, simply. Her words rang kindly; and she smiledencouragement.

　　A gasp burst from the white lips of the girl, and she cowered asone stricken physically.

　　"Mary Turner! Oh, my God! I----" She hid her face within her armsand sat bent until her head rested on her knees in an abasementof misery.

　　Vaguely startled by the hysterical outburst from the girl, Mary'simmediate thought was that here was a pitiful instance of onesuffering from starvation.

　　"Joe," she directed rapidly, "have Fannie bring a glass of milkwith an egg and a little brandy in it, right away."The girl in the chair was shaking soundlessly under the stress ofher emotions. A few disjointed phrases fell from her quiveringlips.

　　"I didn't know--oh, I couldn't!""Don't try to talk just now," Mary warned, reassuringly. "Waituntil you've had something to eat."Aggie, who had observed developments closely, now lifted hervoice in tardy lamentations over her own stupidity. There was noaffectation of the fine lady in her self-reproach.

　　"Why, the poor gawk's hungry!" she exclaimed! "And I never gotthe dope on her. Ain't I the simp!"The girl regained a degree of self-control, and showed somethingof forlorn dignity.

　　"Yes," she said dully, "I'm starving."Mary regarded the afflicted creature with that sympathy born onlyof experience.

　　"Yes," she said softly, "I understand." Then she spoke to Aggie.

　　"Take her to my room, and let her rest there for a while. Haveher drink the egg and milk slowly, and then lie down for a fewminutes anyhow."Aggie obeyed with an air of bustling activity.

　　"Sure, I will!" she declared. She went to the girl and helpedher to stand up. "We'll fix you out all right," she said,comfortingly. "Come along with me.... Hungry! Gee, but that'stough!"Half an hour afterward, while Mary was at her desk, giving partof her attention to Joe Garson, who sat near, and part to arather formidable pile of neatly arranged papers, Aggie reportedwith her charge, who, though still shambling of gait, andstooping, showed by some faint color in her face and an increasedsteadiness of bearing that the food had already strengthened hermuch.

　　"She would come," Aggie explained. "I thought she ought to restfor a while longer anyhow." She half-shoved the girl into achair opposite the desk, in an absurd travesty on the maternalmanner.

　　"I'm all right, I tell you," came the querulous protest.

　　Whereupon, Aggie gave over the uncongenial task of mothering, andsettled herself comfortably in a chair, with her legs merelycrossed as a compromise between ease and propriety.

　　"Are you quite sure?" Mary said to the girl. And then, as theother nodded in assent, she spoke with a compelling kindliness.

　　"Then you must tell us all about it--this trouble of yours, youknow. What is your name?"Once again the girl had recourse to the swift, searching, furtiveglance, but her voice was colorless as she replied, listlessly:

　　"Helen Morris."Mary regarded the girl with an expression that was inscrutablewhen she spoke again.

　　"I don't have to ask if you have been in prison," she saidgravely. "Your face shows it.""I--I came out--three months ago," was the halting admission.

　　Mary watched the shrinking figure reflectively for a long minutebefore she spoke again. Then there was a deeper resonance in hervoice.

　　"And you'd made up your mind to go straight?""Yes." The word was a whisper.

　　"You were going to do what the chaplain had told you," Mary wenton in a voice vibrant with varied emotions. "You were going tostart all over again, weren't you? You were going to begin a newlife, weren't you?" The bent head of the girl bent still lowerin assent. There came a cynical note into Mary's utterance now.

　　"It doesn't work very well, does it?" she asked, bitterly.

　　The girl gave sullen agreement.

　　"No," she said dully; "I'm whipped."Mary's manner changed on the instant. She spoke cheerfully forthe first time.

　　"Well, then," she questioned, "how would you like to work withus?"The girl looked up for a second with another of her fleeting,stealthy glances.

　　"You--you mean that----?"Mary explained her intention in the matter very explicitly. Hervoice grew boastful.

　　"Our kind of work pays well when you know how. Look at us."Aggie welcomed the opportunity for speech, too long delayed.

　　"Hats from Joseph's, gowns from Lucile's, and cracked ice fromTiffany's. But it ain't ladylike to wear it," she concluded witha reproachful glance at her mentor.

　　Mary disregarded the frivolous interruption, and went on speakingto the girl, and now there was something pleasantly cajoling inher manner.

　　"Suppose I should stake you for the present, and put you in witha good crowd. All you would have to do would be to answeradvertisements for servant girls. I will see that you have thebest of references. Then, when you get in with the right people,you will open the front door some night and let in the gang. Ofcourse, you will make a get-away when they do, and get your bitas well."There flashed still another of the swift, sly glances, and thelips of the girl parted as if she would speak. But she did not;only, her head sagged even lower on her breast, and the shrunkenform grew yet more shrunken. Mary, watching closely, saw thesesigns, and in the same instant a change came over her. Wherebefore there had been an underlying suggestion of hardness, therewas now a womanly warmth of genuine sympathy.

　　"It doesn't suit you?" she said, very softly. "Good! I was inhopes it wouldn't. So, here's another plan." Her voice hadbecome very winning. "Suppose you could go West--some placewhere you would have a fair chance, with money enough so youcould live like a human being till you got a start?"There came a tensing of the relaxed form, and the head lifted alittle so that the girl could look at her questioner. And, thistime, the glance, though of the briefest, was less furtive.

　　"I will give you that chance," Mary said simply, "if you reallywant it."That speech was like a current of strength to the wretched girl.

　　She sat suddenly erect, and her words came eagerly.

　　"Oh, I do!" And now her hungry gaze remained fast on the face ofthe woman who offered her salvation.

　　Mary sprang up and moved a step toward the girl who continued tostare at her, fascinated. She was now all wholesome. The memoryof her own wrongs surged in her during this moment only to makeher more appreciative of the blessedness of seemly life. She wasmoved to a divine compassion over this waif for whom she mightprove a beneficent providence. Th............