rmanently employed, at twenty-four shillings a week, how
could he save enough out of that to give this girl generous
nourishment, and a little wine, and country air, when she should get
well enough again? In the meantime, were her mother and sisters to
starve? And it never occurred to him to ask why he should take this
sudden interest in this stranger girl or in her family. The fact was,
he had never before been confronted with so clear a case of hardship
and distress. The solitariness, the helplessness of the child appealed
to him: it was as if he had seen a wren threatened by a hawk, or a
rabbit seized by a weasel. He could not help interfering, and doing
his utmost.

And how could this money of a dead and unknown man be put to a better
use? Was he to go and bury it in Scotland Yard? Was he to advertise
for a crowd of impostors to claim it? He lit the gas and examined the
notes. There were seven--35 pounds--a fortune! He saw the girl in a
little cottage, the window open to let the first of the spring air into
the room, she lying well wrapped up on a couch, a few wild-flowers on
the table, daffodils and primroses from the woods, pink-tipped daisies
from the banks, the red dead-nettle from the hedge-rows, and perhaps
herself, to please him, and out of gratitude as it were, reading some
of Tannahill's songs, 'Loudon's bonnie woods and braes,' 'Langsyne,
beside the woodland burn,' 'Keen blows the wind o'er the Braes o'
Gleniffer,' 'We'll meet beside the dusky glen on yon burn side.' Poor
child! she had probably seen but little of the country during her hard
life. Would she be surprised when all the hawthorn came out, and the
lanes were scented? Perhaps he would be able to teach her a little of
the beauty of simple things, and remove from her mind the poor ideas
about what is great and admirable and desirable begotten in a large
city. 'Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin
not; and yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not
arrayed like one of these.' No doubt her notion of what was most
beautiful and desirable in the world was to be dressed in satin, and
driving in a coach, with powdered footmen behind, to a Royal
Drawing-room.

All this was so specious and plausible. The money lying there seemed
to belong to him more than to any other. And what good might be done
with it! Even if the real owner were alive, surely he would assent.
Thirty-five pounds: ten pounds to be