it was a woman with her head in her knees, and a wretched
child on each side of her. The children were shivering with cold and
making low cries as if they were frightened.

Elizabeth stopped and then ascended the steps.

"Why is it that you cry?" she asked gently. "Tell me."

The woman did not answer at first, but when Elizabeth spoke again she
lifted her head, and as soon as she saw the slender figure in its velvet
and furs, and the pale, refined little face, she gave a great start.

"Lord have mercy on yez!" she said in a hoarse voice which sounded
almost terrified. "Who are yez, an' what bees ye dow' in a place the
loike o' this?"

"I came," said Elizabeth, "to see those who are poor. I wish to help
them. I have great sorrow for them. It is right that the rich should help
those who want. Tell me why you cry, and why your little children sit in
the cold." Everybody had shown surprise to whom Elizabeth had spoken
to-night, but no one had stared as this woman did.

"It's no place for the loike o' yez," she said. "An' it black noight, an'
men and women wild in the drink; an' Pat Harrigan insoide bloind an' mad
in liquor, an' it's turned me an' the children out he has to shlape in
the snow--an' not the furst toime either. An' it's starvin' we
are--starvin' an' no other," and she dropped her wretched head on her
knees and began to moan again, and the children joined her.

[ILLUSTRATION: "WHY IS IT THAT YOU CRY?" SHE ASKED GENTLY.]

"Don't let yez daddy hear yez," she said to them. "Whisht now--it's come
out an' kill yez he will."

Elizabeth began to feel tremulous and faint.

"Is it that they have hunger?" she asked.

"Not a bite or sup have they had this day, nor yesterday," was the
answer, "The good Saints have pity on us."

"Yes," said Elizabeth, "the good Saints have always pity. I will go and
get some food--poor little ones."

She had seen a shop only a few yards away--she remembered passing it.
Before the woman could speak again she was gone.

"Yes," she said, "I was sent to them--it is the answer to my prayer--it
was not in vain that I asked so long."

When she entered the shop the few people who were in it stopped what they
were doing to stare at her as others had done--but she scarcely saw that
it was so.

"Give to me a basket," she said to the owner of the place. "Put in it
some bread and wine--some of the things which are ready to eat. It is
for a poor woman and her little ones who starve."