mind. He thought of his own young mother, whom he
had never seen, yet always loved.

And he resolved to assist this poor mother, who had no money to pay
counsel to help her defend her children, because it took every cent she
could earn to feed and clothe them.

"Yes, the cause of the oppressed is the cause of God! And I will offer
the fruits of my professional labors to him," said Nora's son, as he
reached the City Hall.

Ishmael was not one to wait for a "favorable opportunity." Few
opportunities ever came to him except in the shape of temptations, which
he resisted. He made his opportunities. So when the business that
brought him to the courtroom was completed, he turned his steps towards
Capitol Hill. For he had learned from the statements of Judge Merlin and
Mr. Walsh that it was there the poor mother kept her little day-school.
After some inquiries, he succeeded in finding the schoolhouse--a little
white frame building, with a front and back door and four windows, two
on each side, in a little yard at the corner of the street. Ishmael
opened the gate and rapped at the door. It was opened by a little girl,
who civilly invited him to enter.

A little school of about a dozen small girls, of the middle class in
society, seated on forms ranged in exact order on each side the narrow
aisle that led up to the teacher's desk. Seated behind that desk was a
little, thin, dark-haired woman, dressed in a black alpaca and white
collar and cuffs. At the entrance of Ishmael she glanced up with large,
scared-looking black eyes that seemed to fear in every stranger to see
an enemy or peril. As Ishmael advanced towards her those wild eyes grew
wilder with terror, her cheeks blanched to a deadly whiteness, and she
clasped her hands and she trembled.

"Poor hunted hare! she fears even in me a foe!" thought Ishmael, as he
walked up to the desk. She arose and leaned over the desk, looking at
him eagerly and inquiringly with those frightened eyes.

And now for the first time Ishmael felt a sense of embarrassment. A
generous, youthful impulse to help the oppressed had hurried him to her
presence; but what should he say to her? how apologize for his
unsolicited visit? how venture, unauthorized, to intermeddle with her
business?

He bowed and laid his card before her.

She snatched it up and read it eagerly.

ISHMAEL WORTH,
_Attorney-at-Law_.

"Ah! you--I have been expecting this. You come from my--I mean Mr.
W