"I am accustomed to stand in the pillory of my own past life.

I sometimes ask myself if it was all my fault.

I sometimes wonder if Society had no duties toward me when I was a child selling matches in the street--when I was a hard-working girl fainting at my needle for want of food." Her voice faltered a little for the first time as it pronounced those words; she waited a moment, and recovered herself.

"It's too late to dwell on these things now," she said, resignedly.

"Society can subscribe to reclaim me; but Society can't take me back.