n't ye?" shrieked Mrs. Hawkins. "I'll have the
child back. I've the law on me side."

"We shall find out if the law permits anyone to retain a child and
ill-treat her," returned Mrs. Ramsey.

"Ill-treat, is it? Who says it? If it's that little lyin', whinin'--"

"Hush!" said Mrs. Ramsey, in a tone of command.

The woman was silenced for a moment, then she made a grab at Maggie,
who clung to her protector.

At this moment up strode a policeman. "What's all this?" he cried.
"What's the trouble? Pardon me, madam," he said, addressing Mrs.
Ramsey.

That lady explained.

The policeman looked perplexed. "I am not sure but the woman has some
right, madam. I happen to know that the child belongs here, but you
can probably settle it if she has been ill-treated. You had better
leave the girl here, and consult the proper authorities."

Mrs. Hawkins stood with her arms akimbo, looking on triumphantly.

"If she must stay, so must I," said Mrs. Ramsey, firmly.

"Very well, madam. I will see that you are protected from the woman,"
said the policeman.

Mrs. Ramsey thanked him, and calling her coachman, she bade him drive
directly to her husband's office. Then she took up her place in a
little shop, still holding Maggie by the hand.

Chapter V

A GUILTY CONSCIENCE.

It was an all-day matter. Mrs. Ramsey bravely held her place in the
shop, gazed at by curious eyes, but she calmly waited the return of
her carriage with her husband.

That gentleman's appearance with two officers rather took down Mrs.
Hawkins, and although she still persisted in claiming Maggie, after a
long parley and a visit to the office of a lawyer, the matter was
finally settled, and Maggie was borne triumphantly away, and handed
over to Miss Barnes.

"If there ever was a good woman whom riches cannot spoil it is Mrs.
Ramsey," said the teacher, when she heard Maggie's account of her day.
"You ought to thank God for such a friend, Maggie."

Thus Maggie was established in her new home. She felt the restraint,
it must be admitted, and was not by any means a model child, for the
life she had been living had not been one that helped her to much
goodness; but she had very strong affections and a grateful heart;
therefore, to remind her that Mrs. Ramsey or Edna would be
disappointed in her, if she were naughty, was the surest means of
bringing penitence for a fault, a means which does not always work as
well with children brought up in a purer a