ht in which she could lay her
little one, if she liked, and then ring a bell and hide herself away.

It wasn't easy to reconcile oneself to such philanthropy, but after a
sleepless night, and with rather a sickening pang of mingled hope and
fear, I set off for this hospital.

It was a fine Sunday morning. The working-men in the East End were
sitting at their doors smoking their pipes and reading their Sunday
papers; but when I reached the West all the church bells were ringing,
and people wearing black clothes and shiny black gloves were walking
with measured steps through the wide courtyard that led to the chapel.

I will not say that I did not feel some qualms at entering a Protestant
church, yet as soon as I had taken my seat and looked up at the gallery
of the organ, where the children sat tier on tier, so quaint and
sweet--the boys like robins in their bright red waistcoats, and the
girls like rabbits in their mob-caps with fluted frills--and the service
began, and the fresh young voices rose in hymns of praise to the good
Father of us all, I thought Of nothing except the joy of seeing Isabel
there some day and hearing her singing in the choir.

When the service was over I asked for the secretary and was shown into
his room.

I dare say he was a good man, but oh! why will so many good people wear
such wintry weather in their faces that merely to look at them pierces a
poor woman to the soul?

Apologising for the day, I told my story again (my head a little down),
saying I understood that it was no barrier to a child in that orphanage
that she had been born outside the pale of the law.

"On the contrary," said the secretary, "that is precisely the kind of
child this house is intended for."

But when I went on to say that I assumed they still observed the wish of
the founder that no questions of any kind should be asked about a
child's birth or parentage, he said no, they had altered all that. Then
he proceeded to explain that before a child could be received the mother
must now go before a committee of gentlemen to satisfy them of her
previous good character, and that the father of her baby had deserted
both of them.

More than that, he told me that on being received the child was
immediately re-registered and given a new name, in order that it might
be cut off from the sin of its parents and the contamination of their
shame.

It would be impossible for me to describe the feelings with which I
listened