ll she says is: "Nobody--nobody!" Another case of
immaculate conception! Poor little creature, she's very pathetic, and
that's her best chance. Who could condemn a child like that?'

"And so indeed it turned out. I spared no feelings in my evidence. The
mother and father were in court, and I hope Mrs. Alliner liked my
diagnosis of her maternal qualities. My description of how Em'leen was
sitting when I met her in September tallied so exactly with the
postman's account of how he met her, that I could see the jury were
impressed. And then there was the figure of the child herself, lonely
there in the dock. The French have a word, _Hebetee_. Surely there never
was a human object to which it applied better. She stood like a little
tired pony, whose head hangs down, half-sleeping after exertion; and
those hare eyes of hers were glued to the judge's face, for all the
world as if she were worshipping him. It must have made him
extraordinarily uncomfortable. He summed up very humanely, dwelling on
the necessity of finding intention in her conduct towards the baby; and
he used some good strong language against the unknown man. The jury
found her not guilty, and she was discharged. The schoolmistress and I,
anticipating this, had found her a refuge with some Sisters of Mercy,
who ran a sort of home not far away, and to that we took her, without a
'by your leave' to the mother.

"When I came home the following summer, I found an opportunity of going
to look her up. She was amazingly improved in face and dress, but she
had attached herself to one of the Sisters--a broad, fine-looking
woman--to such a pitch that she seemed hardly alive when out of her
sight. The Sister spoke of it to me with real concern.

"'I really don't know what to do with her,' she said; 'she seems
incapable of anything unless I tell her; she only feels things through
me. It's really quite trying, and sometimes very funny, poor little
soul! but it's tragic for her. If I told her to jump out of her bedroom
window, or lie down in that pond and drown, she'd do it without a
moment's hesitation. She can't go through life like this; she must learn
to stand on her own feet. We must try and get her a good place, where
she can learn what responsibility means, and get a will of her own.'

"I looked at the Sister, so broad, so capable, so handsome, and so
puzzled, and I thought, 'Yes, I know exactly. She's on your nerves; and
where in the world will you find a place fo