She was gazing at Faith with a keen, penetrating glance.  It would have been cruel to have kept her in ignorance any longer.

“Well, then, lie down, dear, and I’ll begin at the beginning,” said Faith gently, “and you must promise not to ask questions until I have finished.”

She laid her mother back on the sofa and began her tale, but she took care to touch upon some things very lightly and leave others out of her narration altogether.

When she had finished her mother still lay silent for a few minutes, then she suddenly sat up straight and stared at her daughter.

“It is a thousand times worse than I thought,” she said slowly.  “Although your father told me a great deal about the evils that exist in business places.  Why, those men are criminals and nothing less!  They are destroying women’s souls as well as starving their bodies, and all to swell their own bank accounts and ride in carriages.  Oh, it is shameful!  And to think that nothing can be done to stop it.”

“But something must be done!  Something shall be done!” cried Faith stoutly.  “There is one power alone that can conquer all evil.  We must invoke that power upon this dreadful curse, and God has promised that the prayer of faith shall not go unanswered.”

“Oh, child, can you not see how foolish all that is?” asked her mother irritably.  “As if prayer was needed for what God can see for Himself!  If He wished things different He could easily change them.  I have no faith in His goodness, His love or His mercy.”

The tears sprang to Faith’s eyes, but the words did not surprise her.  She laid them to the weakness of her mother’s physical condition.

“Some day you will see it differently, dear little mother,” she said, sweetly.  “You are still resentful for the injury which you have suffered.  When that spirit has been conquered your faith will return.  ‘All things work together for good to them that love Him.’”

“Do you mean that your dear father’s death was intended for my good?” her mother almost screamed.  “Do you see mercy, child, in such cruel injustice, injustice that allows the rich to prosper in their evil ways and puts the knife of poverty to the throat of the deserving?  No! a thousand times no!  I will not believe it!  Your father was an honest man doing a legitimate business.  Those sharks opened their store and put in a book department.  They undercut his figures even when it was a loss to do so, knowing that in the end they would ruin him and drive him out of their path forever!  What followed?  You know only too well, my poor, fatherless daughter.  In a fit of despondency he killed himself; the man who had done no wrong—­except to lose his courage, and they, Denton, Day & Co., have accumulated millions.  They have his blood on their hands as they have the blood of many others!”

The poor woman was rocking herself back and forth as she talked, while Faith could only bury her head in the sofa pillows and pray silently for wisdom.