h a bright look, "this is only my
new lodger, a friend of dear Wil--"

"Why, bless you, old 'ooman," interrupted Captain Wopper, "_he_ knows me
well enough. I went to him this morning and got Mrs Stoutley's
address. Come in, Dr Lawrence. I may claim to act the host here now
in a small way, perhaps, and bid visitors welcome--eh! Mrs Roby?"

"Surely, surely," replied the old woman.

"Thank you both for the welcome," said the visitor with a pleasant
smile, as he shook hands with Mrs Roby. "I thought I recognised your
voice, Captain Wopper, as you passed Mrs Leven's door, and came out to
see how you and my old friend here get on together."

"Is she any better to-night, sir?" asked Mrs Roby, anxiously.

Lawrence shook his head sadly and said she was no better, and that he
feared she had little chance of getting better while her dissipated son
dwelt under the same roof with her. "It is breaking her heart," he
added, "and, besides that, the nature of her disease is such that
recovery is impossible unless she is fed on the most generous diet.
This of course she cannot have, because she has no means of her own.
Her son gambles away nearly all his small salary, and she refuses to go
to an hospital lest her absence should be the removal of the last
restraining link between him and destruction. It is a very sad case--
very."

Captain Wopper was struck with this reference to gambling coming so soon
after his recent conversation on that subject, and asked if there were
no charitable societies or charitable people in London who would help in
a case so miserable.

Yes, there were plenty of charitable institutions, Lawrence told him,
but he feared that this woman had no special claim on any of them, and
her refusal to go to an hospital would tell against her. There were
also, he said, plenty of charitable people, but all of those he happened
to be acquainted with had been appealed to by him so often that he felt
ashamed to try them again. He had already given away as much of his own
slender means as he could well spare, so that he saw no way out of the
difficulty; but he had faith in Providential supervision of human
affairs, and he believed that a way would yet be opened up.

"You're right, sir--right," said Captain Wopper, with emphasis, while he
looked earnestly into the face of the young doctor. "This world wasn't
made to be kicked about like a foot-ball by chance, or circumstances, or
anything of the sort. Look