nd Speckles looked defiantly from one to another.

A tall blonde whose thoughtful blue eyes had been studying the
forewoman's face, laid her hand on the excited girl's arm, remarking
gently:

"Let's not judge too hastily, Speckles dear. I think Miss Merton has
something to tell us. For my part I used to pity Julie, she seemed so
weak and sickly and so terribly alone. She was with us but she was not
one of us."

"Pity your grandmother," cried Speckles the irrepressible. "If she was
alone all the time, it was her own fault. She was a stuck-up old thing
and wouldn't make friends with any of us. If you'd speak to her she'd
only stare at you with those fierce black eyes of hers and answer yes or
no just as short and snappy as you please."

"I doubt if we tried very hard, any of us, to win her friendship, the
poor little thing. And she did seem so forlorn and lonely at times,"
answered the blonde. "But there, girls, let's all keep quiet if we can
for I know Miss Merton has something to tell us."

"You are right, Louise, I have a little story to tell you, the story of
Julie Benoit," and she told them Julie's story as she had heard it from
Julie herself. In conclusion, she added: "When I left that poor child
beside her dead mother, I went at once to the superintendent and told
him the whole story. You girls know how kind he is; many of you have had
personal experience of his charity. He called in his wife and together
they planned to bury Julie's mother as a Catholic should be buried, they
to stand all the expense. They have also undertaken to see that the
younger children are sent to school and the grandmother properly cared
for, and Julie is to return to her place here on Monday.

"I wish you could have seen her face when I went back to those two
dreadful rooms in the alley where she lives and told her what the
superintendent and his wife had said. She stared at me, amazed,
incredulous; then said slowly in an awed whisper:

"'They do all that for me, Julie Benoit the thief! You tell the lady it
is I who steal her money but she forgive and have my mother buried like
a Christian. She have her taken into church where the priest will bless
her and pray over her. She have her buried where I can go and kneel
beside her grave and tell her that I love her still and that I forget
her never, no never. The lady do all that for me who steal her money.
But she is good, she is kind to forgive me.'

"After a moment's thought, she a