aim her marriage, and have, in return for all
she had suffered, nothing but the reproach of an attempted fraud.

To find employment, means of honourable support, was an urgent
necessity.

She had written in reply to sundry advertisements, but without result.
She tried to draw up an advertisement on her own account, but found the
difficulty insuperable. What was there she could do? Teach children,
perhaps; but as a visiting governess, the only position of the kind
which circumstances left open to her, she could hope for nothing more
than the paltriest remuneration. Be somebody's 'secretary'? That sounded
pleasant, but very ambitious: a sense of incompetency chilled her. In an
office, in a shop, who would dream of giving her an engagement?

Walking about the streets of London in search of suggestions, she gained
only an understanding of her insignificance. In the battle of life every
girl who could work a sewing-machine or make a matchbox was of more
account than she. If she entered a shop to make purchases, the young
women at the counter seemed to smile superiority. Of what avail her
'education,' her 'culture'? The roar of myriad industries made mocking
laughter at such futile pretensions. She shrank back into her suburban
home.

A little book on 'employments for women,' which she saw advertised and
bought, merely heightened her discouragement. Here, doubtless, were
occupations she might learn; but, when it came to choosing, and
contemplating the practical steps that must be taken, her heart sank.
She was a coward; she dreaded the world; she saw as never yet the
blessedness of having money and a secure home.

The word 'home' grew very sweet to her ears. A man, she said to herself,
may go forth and find his work, his pleasure, in the highways; but is
not a woman's place under the sheltering roof? What right had a mother
to be searching abroad for tasks and duties? Task enough, duty obvious,
in the tending of her child. Had she but a little country cottage with
needs assured, and her baby cradled beside her, she would ask no more.

How idle all the thoughts of her girlhood! How little she knew of life
as it would reveal itself to her mature eyes!

Fatigued into listlessness, she went to the lending-library, and chose a
novel for an hour's amusement. It happened that this story was concerned
with the fortunes of a young woman who, after many an affliction sore,
discovered with notable suddenness the path to fame, luc