does not make me less interested in the unhappy, or less
desirous of serving them. Certainly you have met with the two
greatest losses which can come to a woman--I know your story
well enough to say that--; but what have you to tell me in proof
that you should not lose your anticipated income as well?
Something vital, I hope, else I cannot help you; something which
you should have told the coroner's jury--and did not."

The flush which was the sole answer these words called forth did
not take from the refinement of the young widow's expression, but
rather added to it; Violet watched it in its ebb and flow and,
seriously affected by it (why, she did not know, for Mrs. Hammond
had made no other appeal either by look or gesture), pushed
forward a chair and begged her visitor to be seated.

"We can converse in perfect safety here," she said. "When you
feel quite equal to it, let me hear what you have to
communicate. It will never go any further. I could not do the
work I do if I felt it necessary to have a confidant."

"But you are so young and so--so--"

"So inexperienced you would say and so evidently a member of
what New Yorkers call 'society.' Do not let that trouble you. My
inexperience is not likely to last long and my social pleasures
are more apt to add to my efficiency than to detract from it."

With this Violet's face broke into a smile. It was not the
brilliant one so often seen upon her lips, but there was
something in its quality which carried encouragement to the