as she had been doing. She was young, unsophisticated, sad, and in want in
a strange town. She applied for advice to a man highly honored and
recommended by his fellow-citizens. The man played the brute. The girl
fled--anywhere. Had she been less brave, she would have fled from herself.
She came to San Francisco and took a position as nurse-girl; children, she
thought, could not play her false, and she might outlive it. The hope was
cruel. She was living near my home, had seen my sign probably, and in the
extremity of her distress came to me. There is a good woman who keeps a
lodging-house, and who delights in doing me favors. I left the poor child
in her hands, and she is now fully recovered. As a physician I can do no
more for her, and yet melancholy has almost made a wreck of her. Nothing I
say has any effect; all she answers is, 'It isn't worth while.' I
understand her perfectly, but I wished to infuse into her some of her old
spirit of independence. This morning I asked her if she intended to let
herself drift on in this way. I may have spoken a little more harshly than
necessary, for my words broke down completely the wall of dogged silence
she had built around herself. 'Oh, sir,' she cried, weeping like the child
she is, 'what can I do? Can I dare to take little children by the hand,
stained as I am? Can I go as an impostor where, if people knew, they would
snatch their loved ones from me? Oh, it would be too wretched!' I tried
to remonstrate with her, told her that the lily in the dust is no less a
lily than is her spotless sister held high above contamination. She looked
at me miserably from her tear-stained face, and then said, 'Men may think
so, but women don't; a stain with them is ignoble whether made by one's
self or another. No woman knowing my story would think me free from
dishonor, and hold out her clean hands to me.' 'Plenty,' I contradicted.
'Maybe,' she said humbly; 'but what would it mean? The hand would be held
out at arm's length by women safe in their position, who would not fail to
show me how debased they think me. I am young yet; can you show me a girl,
like myself in years, but white as snow, kept safe from contamination, as