and although draped in very humble and well-worn apparel, she looked what she was—­a gentlewoman in every sense of the word; though beyond an empty title, she possessed hardly anything in the world.  She answered our inquiries with a natural courtesy, which at least some of us felt to be a condescension.  ‘Gentlemen,’ she said, ’it is true, as your attendant states, that I am a lady.  In my youth, I married a titled man.  I make no boast of that—­it was, indeed, my misfortune.  I was brought up and educated to occupy a station inferior to few:  I filled that station for many years; it is not for me to say how appropriately; and though calamity has overtaken me now, and I have been familiar with necessity for so long a time, yet I feel that I am a lady still.  I may be reproached with poverty, and that I can bear; but I trust I shall never be justly reproached with having fallen to the level of my circumstances.  I am grateful to you for the assistance you so kindly render me; and I can express that sentiment, and feel it deeply, too, without humiliation, because the aid you supply is as voluntary on your part as its acceptance is necessary on mine.’  When our foreman had instinctively wrapped the donation awarded to her in a quarter sheet of letter-paper, and presented her with it, she bent with a dignified obeisance, and silently withdrew.

A third applicant, worthy of a passing notice, was a lady of a very different stamp.  Who or what she had been in former years, I could not ascertain, but she appeared before us in the character of a middle-aged mince-pie monomaniac, and jam-tart amateur.  The poor harmless creature was clad in the veriest shreds of dusky feminine attire, which barely shielded her limbs from the inclemency of the weather.  She had a notion that she, too, was a lady, and that, being a lady, she was bound to live by the consumption of pastry, and nothing else.  We were admonished by our custodian that whatever amount we awarded her, whether it were much or little, would be forthwith consigned to the confectioner, in exchange for mince-pies and tarts of the very best quality; and I regret to say, that this announcement had the effect of reducing considerably the sum she derived from the charity of the ward, and effectually preventing the consummation of any very formidable debauch with her favourite viands.  But the poor simpleton was as merry as she was innocent and harmless; and all unsuspicious of the latent grudge which had lessened her gratuity, tripped hastily off, to enjoy at least one delicious repast.

After we had sat some hours, a very distressing case was brought forward.  A poor woman, the wife of a working-man, and the mother of a young family, had been deserted by her husband, who had left her, besides her own children, the charge of his bedridden parents.  Under this accumulation of burdens, she had been heroically struggling for some months, in the vain attempt, by her single energies, to ward off the approach of want, and to act at the same time the part of nurse to the old couple.  She had succeeded in a great measure, and modestly sought but a little help to enable her to persevere in her arduous undertaking.