On the morning following, a neatly-caparisoned carriage is seen driving to the door of a little brick house in Crosby street. From it Madame Montford alights, and passes in at the front door, while in another minute it rolls away up the street and is lost to sight. A few moments’ consultation, and the detective, who has ushered the lady into his humbly-furnished little parlor, withdraws to give place to the pale and emaciated figure of the woman Munday, who advances with faltering step and downcast countenance. “Oh! forgive me, forgive me! have mercy upon me! forgive me this crime!” she shrieks. Suddenly she raises her eyes, and rushing forward throws herself at Madame Montford’s feet, in an imploring attitude. Dark and varied fancies crowd confusedly on Madame Montfort’s mind at this moment. “Nay, nay, my poor sufferer, rather I might ask forgiveness of you.” She takes the woman by the hand, and, with an air of regained calmness, raises her from the floor. With her, the outer life seems preparing the inner for what is to come. “But I have long sought you-sought you in obedience to the demands of my conscience, which I would the world gave me power to purify; and now I have found you, and with you some rest for my aching heart. Come, sit down; forget what you have suffered; tell me what befell you, and what has become of the child; tell me all, and remember that I will provide for you a comfortable home for the rest of your life.” Madame motions her to a chair, struggling the while to suppress her own feelings. “I loved the child you intrusted to my care; yes, God knows I loved it, and watched over it for two years, as carefully as a mother. But I was poor, and the brother, in whose hands you intrusted the amount for its support (this, the reader must here know, was not a brother, but the paramour of Madame Montford), failed, and gave me nothing after the first six months. I never saw him, and when I found you had gone abroad—” The woman hesitates, and, with weeping eyes and trembling voice, again implores forgiveness. “My husband gave himself up to drink, lost his situation, and then he got to hating the child, and abusing me for taking it, and embarrassing our scanty means of living. Night and day, I was harassed and abused, despised and neglected. I was discouraged, and gave up in despair. I clung to the child as long as I could. I struggled, and struggled, and struggled—” Here the woman pauses, and with a submissive look, again hangs down her head and sobs. “Be calm, be calm,” says Madame Montford, drawing nearer to her, and making an effort to inspirit her. “Throw off all your fears, forget what you have suffered, for I, too, have suffered. And you parted with the child?” “Necessity forced me,” pursues the woman, shaking her head. “I saw only the street before me on one side, and felt only the cold pinchings of poverty on the other. You had gone abroad—”