Edith faltered her thanks, and went on.

“That’s the queen,” said her companion.

“The queen!” Edith’s hasty tones betrayed her surprise.

“Yes; it’s Norah.  They’re all afraid of her.  I’m glad she saw us.  She’s as strong as a man.”

In a few minutes they reached the mission, but in those few minutes Edith saw more to sadden the heart, more to make it ache for humanity, than could be described in pages.

The missionary was at home.  Edith told him the purpose of her call and the locality she desired to visit.

“I wanted to go alone,” she remarked, “but this little girl, who is in my class at the sewing-school, said it wouldn’t be safe, and that you would go with me.”

“I should be sorry to have you go alone into Grubb’s court,” said the missionary, kindly, and with concern in his voice, “for a worse place can hardly be found in the city—­I was going to say in the world.  You will be safe with me, however.  But why do you wish to visit Grubb’s court?  Perhaps I can do all that is needed.”

“This little girl who lives in there, has been telling me about a poor neglected baby that her mother says has no doubt been stolen, and—­and—­” Edith voice faltered, but she quickly gained steadiness under a strong effort of will:  “I thought perhaps I might be able to do something for it—­to get it into one of the homes, maybe.  It is dreadful, sir, to think of little babies being neglected.”

Mr. Paulding questioned the child who had brought Edith to the mission-house, and learned from her that the baby was merely boarded by the woman who had it in charge, and that she sometimes took it out and sat on the street, begging.  The child repeated what she had said to Edith—­that the baby was the property, so to speak, of two abandoned women, who paid its board.

“I think,” said the missionary, after some reflection, “that if getting the child out of their hands is your purpose, you had better not go there at present.  Your visit would arouse suspicion; and if the two women have anything to gain by keeping the child in their possession, it will be at once taken to a new place.  I am moving about in these localities all the while, and can look in upon the baby without anything being thought of it.”

This seemed so reasonable that Edith, who could not get over the nervous tremors occasioned by what she had already seen and encountered, readily consented to leave the matter for the present in Mr. Paulding’s hands.

“If you will come here to-morrow,” said the missionary, “I will tell you all I can about the baby.”

Out of a region where disease, want and crime shrunk from common observation, and sin and death held high carnival, Edith hurried with trembling feet, and heart beating so heavily that she could hear it throb, the considerate missionary going with her until she had crossed the boundary of this morally infected district.