In a few moments Holdsworth heard footsteps outside, and Dolly came in, holding Nelly’s hand. She was terribly pale, with a look of terror and exhaustion on her face painful to see. There was an unnatural sleepless brilliancy in her eyes that heightened her worn, hopeless expression. She had thrown an old shawl over her shoulders, and through the portion of the fair skin of the neck that was exposed the veins showed dark. The hand she gave to Holdsworth was like a stone. He was so overcome by the sight of her misery, that for some moments he could not speak. The child came up to him and rubbed her cheek against his hand. “This is kind, very kind of you, Mr. Hampden,” she exclaimed in a low, faint voice, sinking upon the sofa and shivering as she hugged the shawl about her shoulders. “You are in great distress, I fear. I only heard the news just now. I came over to you at once,” he answered tremulously, the fierce beating of his heart sounding an echo through his voice. “It is what I have been daily expecting for many months--for many bitter, cruel months!” she exclaimed. “It has come at last. We are homeless now. And my husband, who ought to be at my side, has left me. He was away all day yesterday and last night. O God! what a night it has been!” she moaned, rocking herself to and fro. “Don’t say you are homeless,” he cried; “you have a friend. Let me be your friend. Mrs. Parrot shall give you a home for the present ... if you will accept it.” She looked at him with stupefied eyes as one who doubts her senses, then said: “We have no claim upon you. Oh! how noble-hearted! Nelly, Nelly, come to me, come to me!” The child ran to her mother, and, being frightened by the passionate despair in her voice, hid her face in her lap and burst into tears. But Dolly’s eyes remained dry--lost nothing of their wild brilliancy. She dragged her child to her, and swayed to and fro with tearless sobs that shook and convulsed her. “I have deserved this,” she presently moaned. “I was faithless to the truest love God ever blessed a woman with. Why was he taken from me? My child was starving, and the sight of her wasted body drove me mad with grief. I never loved Mr. Conway--he knew it ... He has left me! Oh! he is a coward to leave me! What am I to do? I am a lonely woman--I have this child to feed and clothe--I have not a relative to turn to--and now we are homeless! O God! this is too much, too much!” She hid her face in her child’s hair.