nxiety in check, though fever had crept into her blood and an
enemy to her life was assaulting its very citadel. But as the hour at
which her husband had promised to return passed by and he came not,
anxiety gave place to terror. The fever in her blood increased, and
sent delirium to her brain. Hours passed, but her husband did not
return. Not until the cold dawn of the next sorrowful morning did he
make his appearance, and then in such a wretched plight that it was
well for his unhappy wife that she could not recognize his condition.
He came too late--came from one of the police stations, it is said,
having been found in the street too much intoxicated to find his way
home, and in danger of perishing in the snow--came to find his wife,
dying, and before the sun went down on that day of darkness she was
cold and still as marble. Happily for the babe, it went the way its
mother had taken, following a few days afterward.

"'That was months ago. Alas for the wretched man! He has never risen
from that terrible fall, never even made an effort, it is said, to
struggle to his feet again. He gave up in despair.

"'His eldest child, Ethel, the young lady you saw just now, was away
from home at school when her mother died. Think of what a coming back
was hers! My heart grows sick in trying to imagine it. Poor child! she
has my deepest sympathy.

"'Ethel did not return to school. She was needed at home now. The death
of her mother and the unhappy fall of her father brought her face to
face with new duties and untried conditions. She had a little brother
only six years old to whom she must be a mother as well as sister.
Responsibilities from which women of matured years and long experience
might well shrink were now at the feet of this tender girl, and there
was no escape for her. She must stoop, and with fragile form and hands
scarce stronger than a child's lift and bear them up from the ground.
Love gave her strength and courage. The woman hidden in the child came
forth, and with a self-denial and self-devotion that touches me to
tears when I think of it took up the new life and new burdens, and has
borne them ever since with a patience that is truly heroic.

"'But new duties are now laid upon her. Since her father's fall his
practice has been neglected, and few indeed have been willing to
entrust him with business. The little he had accumulated is all gone.
One article of furniture after another has been sold to buy food and