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.
Mr.Dinneford met Edith at the door on her arrival home.
"My child," he exclaimed as he looked into her face, back to which the color had not returned since her fright in Briar street, "are you sick ?" "I don't feel very well;" and she tried to pass him hastily in the hall as they entered the house together.

But he laid his hand on her arm and held her back gently, then drew her into the parlor.