Afterwards I went into the drawing-room, to look at the picture once more.  It seemed to me that the anxiety in her eyes was not so evident as I had thought it last night.  The light possibly was more favorable.  She stood just above the place where, I make no doubt, she had sat in life, where her little work-basket was,—­not very much above it.  The picture was full-length, and we had hung it low, so that she might have been stepping into the room, and was little above my own level as I stood and looked at her again.  Once more I smiled at the strange thought that this young creature—­so young, almost childish—­could be my mother; and once more my eyes grew wet looking at her.  He was a benefactor, indeed, who had given her back to us.  I said to myself, that if I could ever do anything for him or his, I would certainly do it, for my—­for this lovely young creature’s sake.  And with this in my mind, and all the thoughts that came with it, I am obliged to confess that the other matter, which I had been so full of on the previous night, went entirely out of my head.

* * * * *

It is rarely, however, that such matters are allowed to slip out of one’s mind.  When I went out in the afternoon for my usual stroll,—­or rather when I returned from that stroll,—­I saw once more before me the woman with her baby, whose story had filled me with dismay on the previous evening.  She was waiting at the gate as before, and, “Oh, gentleman, but haven’t you got some news to give me?” she said.

“My good woman,—­I—­have been greatly occupied.  I have had—­no time to do anything.”

“Ah!” she said, with a little cry of disappointment, “my man said not to make too sure, and that the ways of the gentlefolks is hard to know.”

“I cannot explain to you,” I said, as gently as I could, “what it is that has made me forget you.  It was an event that can only do you good in the end.  Go home now, and see the man that took your things from you, and tell him to come to me.  I promise you it shall all be put right.”

The woman looked at me in astonishment, then burst forth, as it seemed, involuntarily, “What! without asking no questions?” After this there came a storm of tears and blessings, from which I made haste to escape, but not without carrying that curious commentary on my rashness away with me,—­“Without asking no questions?” It might be foolish, perhaps; but after all, how slight a matter.  To make the poor creature comfortable at the cost of what,—­a box or two of cigars, perhaps, or some other trifle.  And if it should be her own fault, or her husband’s—­what then?  Had I been punished for all my faults, where should I have been now?  And if the advantage should be only temporary, what then?  To be relieved and comforted even for a day or two, was not that something to count in life?  Thus I quenched the fiery dart of criticism which my protegee herself had thrown into the transaction, not without a certain