se,
and if you are not fit to live how can you be fit to die?" said her
mother, firmly.

Kate shuddered, but checked her sobs. "Oh, mother, I was so afraid I
should, and I'm not--I'm not fit to die. I have been such a wicked
girl, mother. I did not steal the watches, but I have done things
quite as bad--I've deceived everybody, mother."

"And yourself too," said Mrs. Haydon.

"How could I do that, mother? I knew all the time that I was doing
wrong."

"Of course you did, my dear, but you had begun to deceive yourself long
before you came to London, and that was when the mischief began. I
think I have been to blame, too, perhaps, for I was proud of my
truthful, upright girl, and may have let you hear me say more than was
good for you to hear and you grew proud and self-righteous as a
Pharisee."

"And now, now I am the worst girl living," sobbed Kate. "Oh, mother,
I've thought of it all the while I was in prison. I, a Sunday scholar,
in prison," she repeated with a shudder. "I have been a shame and
disgrace to my class and teacher as well as you, mother, but I've
sinned against God worst of all. Oh, mother, will He ever forgive me
do you think?"

"Yes, Kate; He will forgive anything you have done or can do, for the
sake of His dear Son, and if you are spared--as I hope and trust you
may be--you must live a very different life in future. You thought you
were strong enough and good enough before and did not need His grace.
You never felt that you were a sinner needing the blood of Christ to
cleanse and pardon you, but now----"

"Oh, mother, mother, my sins are too great," broke in Kate. "How could
the Lord Jesus forgive such a wicked girl as I am?"

"Because He loved you--loved you so much as to die for you, Kate. My
dear, you have thought so much of your own goodness that it is hard for
you to believe now that God can forgive you without your deserving it;
but was it as hard for you to believe that I would forgive you?"

Kate shook her head. "I knew you would forgive though I never could
deserve it, because you always loved me so much," she said slowly.

"My dear, God loves you more than I do, with a wiser, purer, better
love than even mine, and He wants you to believe it now, Kate, and hope
in Him. I know you have been so weak and foolish that you cannot have
any hope of yourself; but hope in God, my darling, confess all your
sins to Him, tell Him the weakness and folly you have been guilty of,