ose
blue, pinched face and hungry eyes made her sick with pity. The child
was calling shrilly to an equally ragged boy who had paused on the
sidewalk a little ahead of them. The youngster was absorbed in
tormenting a feeble old man, whose little wagon with its load of soiled
clothing he had just overturned into the mud of the street. The man
was making pitiful attempts to gather up his bundle, but his poor old
frame, stiffened and twisted with rheumatism, refused to bend. The
urchin shouted with laughter, and his victim leaned against a wall
whimpering helplessly. The sight of him hurt Elizabeth even more than
the little girl's hungry face. She thought of her own father, and felt
a hint of the anguish it would mean if ho should one day be
ill-treated. The tears came, blinding her eyes so that she stumbled
along the rotten sidewalk.

A young woman suddenly appeared from the door of a hovel that stood
half-way down an alley just across the way. She had a ragged shawl
over her head, her thin cotton shirt flapped about her meager limbs,
and her feet were incased in men's boots. She ran swiftly to the old
man, routed the urchin, and with many pitying, comforting words began
gathering up the contents of the wagon. Elizabeth longed to stay and
help and comfort them both; she listened eagerly, after they had
passed, to catch what the girl was saying. "Poor grandaddy," she heard
again and again. "Poor grandaddy, I shouldn't have let ye go alone."

There was something about her that drew Elizabeth to her. She wanted
to stop and thank her for the assurance that love could blossom so
beautifully even in this barren spot. Her voice, too, haunted her.
Where had she heard that soft Highland accent before? It seemed to
bring some vague memory of childhood. She glanced up at her companion,
wondering if she dared step back and speak to the pair.

But Mr. Huntley did not seem to have noticed them. He was looking
across the street with an air of half-amused interest.

"I'm rather glad you brought me around this way, Miss Gordon," he said,
the amusement in his face deepening. "I own some property here that I
haven't seen for years." He waved his cane in the direction of the row
of houses across the street. Elizabeth looked back, the old man and
the girl were disappearing down the alley into one of them.

"They are a hard lot, my tenants. If some of the young ladies of St.
Stephen's experienced a little of the diffi