. Lydia put a stop to this simply enough by getting
up and putting her arms round his neck.

"I've thought so much of all you've been doing for me since I was a
child," she said.

He was associated in her mind with her father. Wiley felt his eyelids
stinging.

"Why, my dear child, my dear child!" he said. And he held her off to
look at her as if uncertain that it was the same girl. "Well, I must say
prison doesn't seem to have done you much harm."

"It's done me good, I hope," said Lydia.

She made him sit down and drink an extra cup of coffee. There was
something quite like a festival in the comradeship that developed among
the four of them. She began to question her visitor about the method of
getting a pardon for Evans. He advised her to go and see Mrs. Galton. At
the name she and Benny glanced at each other and smiled. They were both
thinking of the day when Lydia had so resented the presence of the old
lady in her house.

She went to Mrs. Galton's office that same morning. It occupied the
second floor of an old building that looked out over Union Square. Lydia
had not thought of making an appointment, and when she reached the outer
office she was told that Mrs. Galton was engaged--would be engaged for
some time--a member of the parole board was in conference. Would Miss
Thorne wait?

Yes, Lydia would wait. She sat down on a hard bench and watched the work
of the society go on before her eyes. She had some knowledge of business
and finance, and she knew very soon that she was in the presence of an
efficient organization; but it was not only the efficiency that charmed
her--it was partly the mere business routine, which made her feel like
coming home after she had been at sea. The clear impersonal purpose of
it all promised forgetfulness of self. At the end of half an hour of
waiting she was possessed with the desire to become part of this work.
Here was the solution of her problem. When at last she was shown into
Mrs. Galton's bleak little office--not half the size of Lydia's
cell--her first words were not of Evans, after all.

"Mrs. Galton," she said, "can you use me in this organization?"

Without intending the smallest disrespect to Mrs. Galton, it must be
admitted that this question was like asking a lion if it could use a
lamb. The organization, like all others of its type, needed devotion,
needed workers, needed money, and was not averse to a little discreet
publicity. All these Lydia offered. Mrs.