d shelter
of the condemned cell--and it is hardly too much to say that my heart
was heavy, when I compared her prospects with the prospects of her
baby-rival. Kind as he was, conscientious as he was, could the Minister
be expected to admit to an equal share in his love the child endeared
to him as a father, and the child who merely reminded him of an act of
mercy? As for his wife, it seemed the merest waste of time to put
her state of feeling (placed between the two children) to the test of
inquiry. I tried the useless experiment, nevertheless.

"It is pleasant to think," I began, "that your other daughter--"

She interrupted me, with the utmost gentleness: "Do you mean the child
that my husband was foolish enough to adopt?"

"Say rather fortunate enough to adopt," I persisted. "As your own
little girl grows up, she will want a playfellow. And she will find a
playfellow in that other child, whom the good Minister has taken for his
own."

"No, my dear sir--not if I can prevent it."

The contrast between the cruelty of her intention, and the musical
beauty of the voice which politely expressed it in those words, really
startled me. I was at a loss how to answer her, at the very time when I
ought to have been most ready to speak.

"You must surely understand," she went on, "that we don't want another
person's child, now we have a little darling of our own?"

"Does your husband agree with you in that view?" I asked.

"Oh dear, no! He said what you said just now, and (oddly enough) almost
in the same words. But I don't at all despair of persuading him to
change his mind--and you can help me."

She made that audacious assertion with such an appearance of feeling
perfectly sure of me, that my politeness gave way under the strain laid
on it. "What do you mean?" I asked sharply.

Not in the least impressed by my change of manner, she took from the
pocket of her dress a printed paper. "You will find what I mean there,"
she replied--and put the paper into my hand.

It was an appeal to the charitable public, occasioned by the enlargement
of an orphan-asylum, with which I had been connected for many years.
What she meant was plain enough now. I said nothing: I only looked at
her.

Pleased to find that I was clever enough to guess what she meant, on
this occasion, the Minister's wife informed me that the circumstances
were all in our favor. She still persisted in taking me into
partnership--the circumstances were in _o