She must teach it to be (humanly speaking) self-dependent." "But after all," said Miss Benson (for she had known and esteemed poor Thomas Wilkins, and had mourned over his untimely death, and the recollection thereof softened her)--"after all, it might be concealed.

The very child need never know its illegitimacy." "How ?" asked her brother.
"Why--we know so little about her yet; but in that letter, it said she had no friends;--now, could she not go into quite a fresh place, and be passed off as a widow ?" Ah, tempter! unconscious tempter! Here was a way of evading the trials for the poor little unborn child, of which Mr Benson had never thought.

It was the decision--the pivot, on which the fate of years moved; and he turned it the wrong way.

But it was not for his own sake.

For himself, he was brave enough to tell the truth; for the little helpless baby, about to enter a cruel, biting world, he was tempted to evade the difficulty.