om wickedness. You can go, an' say no more.'

"This didn't suit Charley, for he knew how Nan kept herself sort of
respectable even when she was with the worst, an' he was bound to find
out all he could.

"Well, he hung on an' asked questions till he'd found out all there was,
an' that was little, as you know. But Nan had wondered many a time where
she came from, an' if she'd ever belonged to anybody, an' he wanted to
be the first one to tell her. He scared the old lady, for he wasn't long
from the Island, where he'd been sent up for assault an' battery, an',
do what you would to him, clothes nor nothin' could ever make him look
like anything but a rough. But he was bound to know, for he thought
there might be money belonging to her or folks that would do for her.
There wasn't a soul, though, that he could find out, an' the next thing
was to go to Nan an' tell her about it. They'd have been wiser to have
waited a day, till the old lady'd a chance to quiet down and think it
all over; but he went straight to Nan an' told her he'd found some of
her folks; an' she, without a word, put on her hat an' went with him. If
she'd been alone it might have been better, for Charley seemed worse
than he was. The old lady was in the room back of the shop, neat as a
pin, an' Nan looked as if she was looking through everything to see if
she could remember.

"An' when the old lady saw her there was a minute she cried again an'
took hold of Nan. 'It's her very look,' she said, 'an' her hair an'
all;' but then she stiffened. 'I've no call to feel sure,' she said,
'but if you are Nan, an' want to be decent, an' will give up all your
wickedness, an' come here an' repent, I'll keep you.'

"'Wickedness?' Nan says, sort of bewildered--'repent?'

"'I don't know as it would do, either,' the old lady said, beginning to
be doubtful again. 'A lost creature, that's only a disgrace, so that I
couldn't hold my head up, any more'n I can when I think how Pete went: I
couldn't well stand it.'

"'You won't have to,' said Nan, with her head high. 'I did think I'd
found some folks, but it seems not;' an' out she went.

"Charley shook his fist an' swore. 'Nice folks, Christians are!' he
said. 'I like 'em,----'em! I'd like to burn her shop over her head!'

"'Nonsense!' Nan said, as if she didn't mind a bit. 'I thought it would
feel good to have somebody I belonged to, but it wouldn't. I never could
stand anything like her shaking her head over me; but it