A Ward of the Golden Gate

lantus trees before the brown-stone frontage of a row of monotonously alike five-storied houses on one of the principal avenues. The Pastor of the Third P

and, somewhat impatiently awaited the arrival of his hostess and parishioner. The door opened to a tall, white-haired woman in lustreless black silk. She was regu

promiscuous mingling with the rough and ungodly has always been to you, and how reluctant you are to be placed in the position of being liable to hear coarse, vulgar, or irreverent speech. I think, too, in our long and pleasant pastoral relations, you have always found me mindful of it. I admit I have sometimes regretted that your late husband had not more generally familiarized you with the ways of the world. But so it is-we all have our weaknes

y, determined air. "I suppose these pati

e unfortunates-dependent either upon public chari

y we

ting your Christian ministrations, dear Sister Argalls, you are

derst

t some inconsistency between his humane instincts and his Christian duty. "Some of them may require, and be benefited by,

displayed her testimonials and announced that she had taken Mrs. Robbins's place, the officials received her r

are thing to let that grim old girl

lot o' money away, but if she tackles that swearing

t showed an almost masculine intuition of the patients' needs and requirements. Nor did she betray any of that over-sensitive shrinking from coarseness which the good Pastor had feared, albeit she was quick to correct its exhibition. The langu

emed wasted by inward struggle and fever. At the first sound of her voice he turne

e Eternal!" he sai

the woman started, glanced hurried

ally suppressed voice, "What, in

later," he said grimly, "

ancing over her shoulder as if she suspecte

ing back exhaustedly on his pi

u know perfectly well I have NO daughter. You know perfectly well that I've kept the w

f an old wound that I got when I shut the mouth of another hound who was ready to bark at her two years after you disappeared. I know that between you and her I've let my old nigger die of a broken heart, because I couldn't keep him to suffer with

andered the fortune I gave her-lets

on't k

e you quarreled?" She wa

alf suspects the secret, and I h

does this man know? What has be

the name she has take

was written on the

t it was a mistake. She t

's wrist with both hands. "What name?" her eyes were sta

rl fancy which that hound helped to fos

f the spiritual character of their interview excluded worldly intrusion, adjusted the screen around his bed, so as partly to hide her own face and Pe

that you're p

and you," said P

t know it, and didn't tell h

what?" he repe

ello WAS h

her hand masterfully upon his shoulder and forced him back. "Her fat

m the coverlet, and putting them back, one by one in her reticu

have been some instinct of the child's, or some diabolical fancy of Brio

say s

an attitude of such Puritan composure that the distant spectators mi

roposed that I should marry him to take care of him and legitimatize our child. I was forced to tell him what I had done with her, and that the Trust could not be disturbed until she was

d the colonel wit

N'T C

pening the past. I resolved to lead a new life as his widow. I came north. In the little New England town where I first stopped, the country people contracted my name to Mrs. A

ing that you lived, and rightly bore he

ould. I have buried all my past, and all its conseq

inty as to her name and parentage, although she has never known the whole trut

she

Hathaway-to whom you intrust

away-but H

es. He has kept the secret faithf

for a moment,

it. I c

to her?" said th

nt them I will furnish you with

y yet childish gratitude upon his worn face that h

e you soon,

here," he

th the first relaxation of her

Not before? Perhaps before, unless complications ensued; the patient had been much run down physically, though, as Mrs. Argalls had probably noticed, he was singularly strong in nervous will force. Mrs. Argalls HAD noticed it, and considered it an extraordinary case of conviction-worthy of the closest wa