The task I set for myself has not been a pleasant one. It has hurt my sensibilities and sickened my heart many times as I stood face to face with the sad and awful degradation that exists in certain regions of our larger cities; and now that my work is done, I take a deep breath of relief. The result is in your hands, good citizen, Christian reader, earnest philanthropist! If it stirs your heart in the reading as it stirred mine in the writing, it will not die fruitless. THE AUTHOR. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. The unwelcome babe--The defrauded young mother--The struggle between life and death--“Your baby is in heaven”--A brief retrospect--A marriage for social position--An ambitious wife and a disappointed husband--The young daughter--The matrimonial market--The Circassian slaves of modern society--The highest bidder--Disappearance--The old sad story--Secret marriage--The letters--Disappointed ambition--Interview between the parents--The mother's purpose--“Baffled, but not defeated”--The father's surprise--The returned daughter--Forgiven--“I am not going away again, father dear”--Insecurity and distrust CHAPTER II. The hatred of a bad woman--Mrs. Dinneford's plans for the destruction of Granger--Starting in business--Plots of Mrs. Dinneford and Freeling--The discounted notes--The trap--Granger's suspicions aroused--Forgery--Mrs. Dinneford relentless--The arrest--Fresh evidence of crime upon Granger's person--The shock to Edith--“That night her baby was born” CHAPTER III. “It is a splendid boy”--A convenient, non-interfering family doctor--Cast adrift--Into the world in a basket, unnamed and disowned--Edith's second struggle back to life--Her mind a blank--Granger convicted of forgery--Seeks to gain knowledge of his child--The doctor's evasion and ignorance--An insane asylum instead of State's prison--Edith's slow return to intelligence--“There's something I can't understand, mother”--“Where is my baby?”--“What of George?”--No longer a child, but a broken hearted woman--The divorce CHAPTER IV. Sympathy between father and daughter--Interest in public charities--A dreadful sight--A sick babe in the arms of a half-drunken woman--“Is there no law to meet such cases?”---“The poor baby has no vote!”--Edith seeks for the grave of her child, but cannot find it--She questions her mother, who baffles her curiosity--Mrs. Bray's visit--Interview between Mrs. Dinneford and Mrs. Bray--“The baby isn't living?”--“Yes; I saw it day before yesterday in the arms of a beggar-woman”--Edith's suspicions aroused--Determined to discover the fate of her child--Visits the doctor--“Your baby is in heaven”--“Would to God it were so, for I saw a baby in hell not long ago!”