ibly give?"

"Hear my story, and you will see."

"I shall be most happy if I can help you. Pray go on."

"You know Dodd, the porter and factotum at the Children's Refuge? Well,
Dodd has a mother, a very respectable old dame, who keeps a very mild
sweety shop, and also sells newspapers, etc. Mrs. Dodd, besides these
sources of wealth, lets lodgings, and seems to get on pretty well. Now
Dodd came to me in some distress, and said, 'Would you be so good, sir,
as to see mother? she wants a word with you bad, very bad.' I of course
said I was very ready to hear what she had to say. So I called at the
little shop, which I often pass. I found the old lady in great trouble
about a young woman who had been lodging with her for some time. She,
Mrs. Dodd, did not know that her lodger was absolutely ill, but she
scarcely eats anything, she never went out, she sometimes sat up half
the night. Hitherto she had paid her rent regularly, but on last
rent-day she had said she could only pay two weeks more, after which she
supposed she had better go to the workhouse. When first she came she
used to go out looking for work, but that ceased, and she seemed in a
half-conscious state. As I was a charitable gentleman, would I go and
speak to her? Well, rather reluctantly, I did. I went upstairs to a
dreary back room, and found a decidedly lady-like young woman, neatly
dressed enough, but ghastly white with dull eyes. She seemed to be
dusting some books, but looked too weary to do much. She was not
surprised or moved in any way at seeing me. When I apologized for
intruding upon her, she murmured that I was very good. Then I asked if I
could help her in any way. She thanked me, but suggested nothing. When I
pressed her to express her needs, she said that life was not worth
working for, but that she supposed they would give her something to do
in the workhouse, and she would do it. As for seeking work, she could
not, that she was a failure, and only cared not to trouble others. I was
quite baffled. She was so quiet and gentle, and spoke with such
refinement, that I was deeply interested. I called again this morning,
and she would hardly answer me. As she is young (not a great deal older
than yourself), perhaps a lady--a woman--might win her confidence. She
seems to have been a dressmaker. Could you not offer her some
employment, and draw her from the extraordinary lethargy which seems to
dull her faculties? No mind can hold out against it; she w