er advice and help should be
desired by any one was something so entirely new that she may be excused
being almost overcome by it.

'Yes,' answered Gladys, with a nod. 'It's about the girls--the girls you
and I know about in Glasgow, who have such a poor time, and are
surrounded with so much temptation. Do you remember that night long ago
when Lizzie Hepburn and you took me to the Ariel Music Hall?'

'Yes, I mind it fine. I was thinkin' o't no' a meenit syne.'

'Well, don't you think that the girls we saw there might have some
place a little pleasanter and safer for them to be in than a music
hall?'

'Yes,' answered Teen, with unwonted seriousness. 'It's no' a guid place.
I've kent twa-three that gaed to the bad, an' they met their bad company
there. But what can lassies dae? Tak' Liz, for instance, or me. Had we
onything to keep us at hame? The streets, or the music hall, or the
dancin', ony o' them was better than sittin' in the hoose.'

'Oh, I know. Have I not thought of it all?' cried Gladys, with a great
mournfulness. 'But don't you think if they had some pleasant place of
their own, where they could meet together of an evening, and read or
work or amuse themselves, they would be happier?'

'There are some places. I ken some lassies that belang to Christian
Associations. Liz an' me gaed twice or thrice wi' some o' the members,
but'--

'But what?' asked Gladys, bending forward with keen interest.

'We didna like it. There was ower muckle preachin', and some of the
ladies looked at us as if we were dirt,' responded Teen candidly. 'Ye
should hae heard Liz when we cam' oot. It was as guid as a play to hear
her imitatin' them.'

Gladys looked thoughtful, and a trifle distressed. Curiously, at the
moment she could not help thinking of the many societies and
associations with which Mrs. Fordyce was connected, and of her demeanour
that day at St. Enoch's Station--an exact exemplification of Teen's
plain-spoken objection.

'Liz said she was as guid as them, an' she wadna be patronised; an'
that's what prevents plenty mair frae gaun. A lot gang just to serve
themselves, because they get a lot frae the ladies. My, ye can get
onything oot o' them if ye ken hoo to work them.'

This was a very gross view of the case, which could not but jar upon
Gladys, though she was conscious that there was a good deal of truth in
it. Somehow, in the light of Teen Balfour's unvarnished estimate of
philanthropic endeavour, her dre