eary sigh, and she worked on.

"It was very, very cruel," said the girl, with her voice shaking, and,
in spite of her efforts, a heavy sob would make its way from her breast,
and the tears stole down her cheeks. "Mother, darling, what shall we
do?"

"Hope and wait," was the response, in a low, pained voice. "It was only
their due. The husband was very kind."

"But the two shillings--for bread," sobbed the girl. "Mamma, does papa
know--can he know of this?"

Mrs Lane leaned back in her chair, and held one hand over her eyes for
a few moments; then, with a gesture to her child to be silent, she once
more bent over her work.

Netta brushed the tears from her eyes, drew in her breath as if in pain,
and worked on in silence for a quarter of an hour, when steps were once
more heard upon the stairs.

The eyes of mother and daughter met, those of the latter in dread; but
it was not the heavy step of Barney, nor the snatchy shuffle of his
wife, but a quick, decided, solid footstep, and the moment afterwards
Mrs Jenkles re-entered the room, and closed the door.

Mrs Lane rose in surprise, and took a step to meet her. Directly
after, completely broken down, she was sobbing on the coarse, uneducated
woman's neck; for she had seen at a glance that the money still lay upon
the table by the empty purse--empty now, for the duplicate it had
contained was gone--as, with a loving, sisterly movement, the cabman's
wife slipped back upon her finger the ring she had been to redeem, and
then, kissing her upon the forehead, whispered--

"My poor dear, what you must have suffered! Hush, hush! There, there!"
said Mrs Jenkles, after a pause, with tears streaming down her own
simple, honest face; and she patted and tried to soothe her forsaken
sister as she would a child.

"There, there, there; don't you cry too, my pretty," she said, as Netta
flew to her, and kissed her on the cheek. "Come, come, come, we must
hold up. There, that's better; now sit down."

"And I said God had forsaken us in our distress," sobbed Mrs Lane. "I
little thought what forms his angels took."

"There, there, there," said Mrs Jenkles, wiping her eyes with a rapid
motion; "if you talk like that you'll drive me away. I told Sam I'd
come up to see, for I didn't know; and he is so easily led away, and I
thought all sorts of things. But, bless and save us, he never told me
half enough. There, there, wipe your eyes."

As she spoke, with a delicacy for