rom
Tiffany's. But it ain't ladylike to wear it," she concluded with a
reproachful glance at her mentor.

Mary disregarded the frivolous interruption, and went on speaking to the
girl, and now there was something pleasantly cajoling in her manner.

"Suppose I should stake you for the present, and put you in with a good
crowd. All you would have to do would be to answer advertisements for
servant girls. I will see that you have the best of references. Then,
when you get in with the right people, you will open the front door some
night and let in the gang. Of course, you will make a get-away when they
do, and get your bit as well."

There flashed still another of the swift, sly glances, and the lips of
the girl parted as if she would speak. But she did not; only, her head
sagged even lower on her breast, and the shrunken form grew yet more
shrunken. Mary, watching closely, saw these signs, and in the same
instant a change came over her. Where before there had been an
underlying suggestion of hardness, there was now a womanly warmth of
genuine sympathy.

"It doesn't suit you?" she said, very softly. "Good! I was in hopes it
wouldn't. So, here's another plan." Her voice had become very winning.
"Suppose you could go West--some place where you would have a fair
chance, with money enough so you could live like a human being till you
got a start?"

There came a tensing of the relaxed form, and the head lifted a little
so that the girl could look at her questioner. And, this time, the
glance, though of the briefest, was less furtive.

"I will give you that chance," Mary said simply, "if you really want
it."

That speech was like a current of strength to the wretched girl. She sat
suddenly erect, and her words came eagerly.

"Oh, I do!" And now her hungry gaze remained fast on the face of the
woman who offered her salvation.

Mary sprang up and moved a step toward the girl who continued to stare
at her, fascinated. She was now all wholesome. The memory of her
own wrongs surged in her during this moment only to make her more
appreciative of the blessedness of seemly life. She was moved to a
divine compassion over this waif for whom she might prove a beneficent
providence. There was profound conviction in the emphasis with which she
spoke her warning.

"Then I have just one thing to say to you first. If you are going to
live straight, start straight, and then go through with it. Do you know
what that means?"

"You