ul afternoon. May I venture to ask were you intending to visit
that poor bed-ridden creature? I thought by the expression she used that
you were not acquainted with her case, and probably had never been in
the cottage before. Will you excuse me for saying she is in great
necessity?"

"It is the first time I have ever been down this lane, sir, but I assure
you it shall not be the last; I will come and see the poor woman again.
There are few things I pity so much as the being bed-ridden."

She had walked into the lane. He had quitted the garden too, and
continued to walk by her side talking as he went.

"I hope there is not so much suffering in that state as we are apt to
imagine," he said; "at least, I have observed that very poor people are
enabled to bear it with wonderful cheerfulness and patience. I believe,
to those who have lived a life of hard labor, rest has something
acceptable in it, which compensates for many privations--but these old
creatures are also miserably poor. The parish can not allow much, and
they are so anxious not to be forced into the house, that they contrive
to make a very little do. The poor woman has been for years receiving
relief as member of a sick-club; but lately the managers have come to a
resolution, that she has been upon the list for such an unexampled
length of time, that they can not afford to go on with the allowance any
longer."

"How cruel and unjust!"

"Very sad, as it affects her comforts, poor creature, and certainly not
just; yet, as she paid only about three years, and has been receiving an
allowance for fifteen, it would be difficult, I fancy, to make the sort
of people who manage such clubs see it quite in that light. At all
events, we can get her no redress, for she does not belong to this
parish, though her husband does; and the club of which she is a member
is in a place at some distance, of which the living is sequestrated, and
there is no one of authority there to whom we can apply. I only take the
liberty of entering into these details, madam, in order to convince you
that any charity you may extend in this quarter, will be particularly
well applied."

"I shall be very happy, if I can be of any use," said Lettice, "but I am
sorry to say, but little of my time is at my own disposal--it belongs to
another--I can not call it my own--and my purse is not very ample. But I
have more money than time," she added, cheerfully, "at all events. And,
if you will be please