t until
she should let fall some word that might serve as a guide to my further
enlightenment; I therefore turned, with the intention of asking her
some question, when my attention was attracted by the figure of a woman
coming out of the back-door of the neighboring house, who, for general
dilapidation and uncouthness of bearing, was a perfect type of the style
of tramp of whom we had been talking at the supper table. Gnawing a
crust which she threw away as she reached the street, she trudged down
the path, her scanty dress, piteous in its rags and soil, flapping in
the keen spring wind, and revealing ragged shoes red with the mud of the
highway.

"There is a customer that may interest you," said I.

Mrs. Belden seemed to awake from a trance. Rising slowly, she looked
out, and with a rapidly softening gaze surveyed the forlorn creature
before her.

"Poor thing!" she muttered; "but I cannot do much for her to-night. A
good supper is all I can give her."

And, going to the front door, she bade her step round the house to the
kitchen, where, in another moment, I heard the rough creature's voice
rise in one long "Bless you!" that could only have been produced by the
setting before her of the good things with which Mrs. Belden's larder
seemed teeming.

But supper was not all she wanted. After a decent length of time,
employed as I should judge in mastication, I heard her voice rise once
more in a plea for shelter.

"The barn, ma'am, or the wood-house. Any place where I can lie out of
the wind." And she commenced a long tale of want and disease, so piteous
to hear that I was not at all surprised when Mrs. Belden told me,
upon re-entering, that she had consented, notwithstanding her previous
determination, to allow the woman to lie before the kitchen fire for the
night.

"She has such an honest eye," said she; "and charity is my only luxury."

The interruption of this incident effectually broke up our conversation.
Mrs. Belden went up-stairs, and for some time I was left alone to ponder
over what I had heard, and determine upon my future course of action. I
had just reached the conclusion that she would be fully as liable to
be carried away by her feelings to the destruction of the papers in her
charge, as to be governed by the rules of equity I had laid down to her,
when I heard her stealthily descend the stairs and go out by the front
door. Distrustful of her intentions, I took up my hat and hastily
followed her.