Mr. May shook his head negatively, at these remarks.

“No one errs on the side of kindness,” he said, “while too many, by an opposite course, drive to ruin those whom leniency might have saved.”

A short time after the occurrence of this little interview, Mr. May, on returning home one evening, found his wife in much apparent trouble.

“Has anything gone wrong, Ella?” he asked.

“Would you have believed it?” was Mrs. May’s quick and excited answer.  “I caught Jane in my drawer to-day, with a ten dollar bill in her hand which she had just taken out of my pocket book, that was still open.”

“Why, Ella!”

“It is too true!  I charged it at once upon her, and she burst into tears, and owned that she was going to take the money and keep it.”

“That accounts, then, for the frequency with which you have missed small sums of money for several months past.”

“Yes.  That is all plain enough now.  But what shall we do?  I cannot think of keeping Jane any longer.”

“Perhaps she will never attempt such a thing again, now that she has been discovered.”

“I cannot trust her.  I should never feel safe a moment.  To have a thief about the house!  Oh, no, That would never answer.  She will have to go.”

“Well, Ella, you will have to do what you think best; but you mustn’t be too hard on the poor creature.  You mustn’t think of exposing her, and thus blasting her character.  It might drive her to ruin.”

“But, is it right for me, knowing what she is, to let her go quietly into another family?  It is a serious matter, husband.”

“I don’t know that you have anything to do with that.  The safest thing, in my opinion, is for you to talk seriously to Jane, and warn her of the consequences of acts such as she has been guilty of.  And then let her go, trusting that she will reform”

“But there is another fault that I have discovered within a week or two past.  A fault that I suspected, but was not sure about.  It is a very bad one.”

“What is that, Ella?”

“I do not think she is kind to the baby.”

“What?”

“I have good reason for believing that she is not kind to our dear little babe.  I partly suspected this for some time.  More than once I have came suddenly upon her, and found our sweet pet sobbing as if his heart would break.  The expression in Jane’s face I could not exactly understand.  Light has gradually broken in upon me, and now I am satisfied that she has abused him shamefully.”

“Ella?”

“It is too true.  Since my suspicions were fully aroused, I have asked Hannah about it, and she, unwillingly, has confirmed my own impressions.”

“Unwillingly!  It was her duty to have let you know this voluntarily.  Treat my little angel Charley unkindly!  The wretch!  She doesn’t remain in this house a day longer.”

“So I have fully determined.  I am afraid that Jane has a wretched disposition.  It is bad enough to steal, but to ill-treat a helpless, innocent babe, is fiend-like.”