She made her resolve known to the rector.

"I am deeply interested in the young organist whom I had the pleasure
of meeting some weeks ago," she said, and she noted with a sinking
heart the light which flashed into the man's face at the mere mention
of the girl. "I understand her mother is seriously ill, and I think
I will go around and call. Perhaps I can be of use. I understand
Mrs Irving is not a churchwoman, and she may be in real need, as the
family is in straitened circumstances. May I mention your name when
I call, in order that Miss Irving may not think I intrude?"

"Why, certainly," the rector replied with warmth. "Indeed, I will
give you a card of introduction. That will open the way for you, and
at the same time I know you will use your delicate tact to avoid
wounding Miss Irving's pride in any way. She is very sensitive about
their straitened circumstances; you may have heard that they were
quite well-to-do until the stroke of paralysis rendered her father
helpless. All their means were exhausted in efforts to restore his
health, and in the employment of nurses and physicians. I think they
have found life a difficult problem since his death, as Mrs Irving
has been under medical care constantly, and the whole burden falls on
Miss Joy's young shoulders, and she is but twenty-one."

"Just the age of Alice," mused the Baroness. "How differently
people's lives are ordered in this world! But then we must have the
hewers of wood and the drawers of water, and we must have the
delicate human flowers. Our Alice is one of the latter, a frail
blossom to look upon, but she is one of the kind which will bloom out
in great splendour under the sunshine of love and happiness. Very