Ben Tyler, the detective, was standing with his hand on the door and a very ugly expression on his face, while a few feet further back stood Mr. Denton, apparently trying to reason with the infuriated woman.

One glance was enough to tell Faith what had happened.  Lou had been stealing again, and the detective had caught her.

For a moment the young girl hardly knew what to do, and in that momentary hesitation she heard what Lou was saying.

“He’s a sneak and a liar!” she screamed, pointing at the detective.  “He can’t prove that I stole anything!  I defy him to do it!”

“But the goods were found in your pocket,” said Mr. Denton, firmly.

“Oh, that doesn’t prove anything,” was the girl’s quick answer.  “It’s very easy for any one to put stolen goods in my pocket; it’s been done before, and both of you know it!”

“But I saw you take the watch,” said the detective, angrily.  “So what’s the use of denying it any longer!”

Faith was hurrying away now as fast as she could go.  She knew it was not her place to interfere in such matters.

“A month ago I might have done so,” she whispered to herself, “but now that Mr. Denton is a Christian, he will deal mercifully with her.”

When she reached the cloak-room the utmost excitement prevailed, and the first words that Faith heard distinctly were spoken by the “head of stock” in the jewelry department.

“I’ve suspected her for a long time,” she said, a little viciously.  “She’s a good-for-nothing, anyway, who isn’t above stealing!”

“They say her father was a thief; so it runs in the family, I guess,” said another voice; “and then, her mother was a bad character; so Lou comes by it honestly!”

“Oh, girls! don’t!” cried Faith, who could endure it no longer.  “Please don’t say such cruel things!  It is dreadful to bear them!”

“Well, they are true, so why shouldn’t we say them?” asked one.

“She’s been caught ‘dead to rights,’ so what’s the use of mincing matters?” said another.

“But does it do any good to bring up all these things?” asked Faith.  “If the poor girl ‘comes honestly by them,’ should we not be charitable even in speaking of her?”

“There is something in that,” spoke up a woman that Faith did not know, “It’s another case of the ’sins of the fathers being visited upon the children.’  If there was nothing else in the world to keep me from believing in a God, that verse in the Bible would surely do it!”

“Well, I don’t need that verse,” said another voice, “for the misery and injustice on earth are enough to prove that no God of love or mercy could possibly have ordained it.”

“But don’t we make a great deal of the injustice and misery for ourselves?” asked Faith, very soberly; “for instance, hasn’t Lou just made a lot of misery for herself?  She knew she could not go on stealing forever without being punished.”