CHAPTER VIII.

THE WORK OF THE ALLY

"In the little room that looked out upon the Monument and the garden,
Dan--all unknowing--slept. And over all brooded the spirit that lives in
Corinth--the Ally--that dread, mysterious thing that never sleeps."


Grace Conner is a type common to every village, town and city in the
land, the saddest of all sad creatures--a good girl with a bad
reputation.

Her reputation Grace owed first to her father's misdeeds, for which the
girl could in no way be to blame, and second, to the all-powerful Ally,
without whom the making of any reputation, good or bad, is impossible.

The Doctor knew the girl well. When she was a little tot and a member
of Martha's Sunday school class, she was at the house frequently. Later
as a member of the church she herself was a teacher and an active worker.
Then came the father's crime and conviction, followed soon by the
mother's death, and the girl was left to shift for herself. She had
kept herself alive by working here and there, in the canning factory
and restaurants, and wherever she could. No one would give her a place
in a home.

The young people in the church, imitating their elders, shunned her, and
it was not considered good policy to permit her to continue teaching in