“A CHILD DROWNED.—­A sad accident occurred yesterday on board the steamer Fawn as she was going down the river.  A woman was standing with a child in her arms near the railing on the lower deck forward.  Suddenly the child gave a spring, and was out of her arms in a moment.  She caught after it frantically, but in vain.  Every effort was made to recover the child, but all proved fruitless.  It did not rise to the surface of the water.”

Mrs. Dinneford read the paragraph twice, and then tore it into little bits.  Her mouth set itself sternly.  A long sigh of relief came up from her chest.  After awhile the hard lines began slowly to disappear, giving place to a look of satisfaction and comfort.

“Out of my way at last,” she staid, rising and beginning to move about the room.  But the expression of relief and confidence which had come into her face soon died out.  The evil counselors that lead the soul into sin become its tormentors after the sin is committed, and torture it with fears.  So tortured they this guilty and wretched woman at every opportunity.  They led her on step by step to do evil, and then crowded her mind with suggestions of perils and consequences the bare thought of which filled her with terror.

It was only a few weeks after this that Mrs. Dinneford, while looking over a morning paper, saw in the court record the name of Pinky Swett.  This girl had been tried for robbing a man of his pocket-book, containing five hundred dollars, found guilty, and sentenced to prison for a term of two years.

“Good again!” exclaimed Mrs. Dinneford, with satisfaction.  “The wheel turns.”

After that she gradually rose above the doubts and dread of exposure that haunted her continually, and set herself to work to draw her daughter back again into society.  But she found her influence over Edith entirely gone.  Indeed, Edith stood so far away from her that she seemed more like a stranger than a child.

Two or three times had Pinky Swett gone to the mission sewing-school in order to get a sight of Edith.  Her purpose was to follow her home, and so find out her name and were she lived.  With this knowledge in her possession, she meant to visit Mrs. Bray, and by a sudden or casual mention by name of Edith as the child’s mother throw her off her guard, and lead her to betray the fact if it were really so.  But Edith was sick at home, and did not go to the school.  After a few weeks the little girl who was to identify Edith as the person who had shown so much interest in the baby was taken away from Grubb’s court by her mother, and nobody could tell where to find her.  So, Pinky had to abandon her efforts in this direction, and Edith, when she was strong enough to go back to the sewing-school, missed the child, from whom she was hoping to hear something that might give a clue to where the poor waif had been taken.