The tender solicitude of her mother, her childlike grief, and her firm belief in the real guiltlessness of her daughter, touched even the custodians of the Tombs who are enured to scenes of pathos.
Mrs.Hawkins had hastened to her daughter as soon as she received money for the journey.

She had no reproaches, she had only tenderness and pity.

She could not shut out the dreadful facts of the case, but it had been enough for her that Laura had said, in their first interview, "mother, I did not know what I was doing." She obtained lodgings near, the prison and devoted her life to her daughter, as if she had been really her own child.

She would have remained in the prison day and night if it had been permitted.

She was aged and feeble, but this great necessity seemed to give her new life.
The pathetic story of the old lady's ministrations, and her simplicity and faith, also got into the newspapers in time, and probably added to the pathos of this wrecked woman's fate, which was beginning to be felt by the public.