“Well, my dear, I will bring you some,” said the little lady, patronizingly, sliding down from the bed. Susie came back with Minnie, bringing some wine gruel; and as she gave it, she asked the girl’s name. “My name is Annie Gilder. I will tell you all about myself. I am not so bad as you think I am. I will tell you all. Shall I?” “Yes, if you like,” answered Susie; “as much as you like, or nothing. I do not think you are bad. I am sure you love truth and honesty better than falsehood and dishonor. Your face shows me that. This evening, if you like, we will come and sit by you.” Annie expressed her gratitude in a simple, touching way, said she was much better, and would soon be able to work and be of some use in return for all the kindness she had received. She expressed the greatest admiration for Minnie. She had never in her life, she said, seen so lovely a child. “She will not tell me her name,” continued Annie, “but she says she is her doctor’s pet.” “She will be called Minnie Forest,” said Susie. “You may as well know now as at any time, that her father is the doctor’s only son, and that I was never married to him. You see I also have had my troubles, but I have lived through them.” “Oh, how you must have suffered!” exclaimed Annie. “I was not so brave as you, was I? But oh! I felt that I must die, and be where I could forget my awful suffering.” “Don’t think of them any more,” said Susie, with feeling. “You can live with us, and work with us in our flower business. Who knows what happiness may be in store for you?” In the evening the doctor called, having been unable in the morning to do more than call at the door, when Clara told him that the patient was doing well. At the sight of him, Annie seized his hand and kissed it with tears. “I am glad already that you saved me,” she said; “and oh! I feel that I am among blessed angels. I never met such dear, noble women before. I wonder if there are any others in the whole world like them. To-night I am going to tell them my history. Will you stay and hear it? I should like to have you.” The doctor stayed, and that evening the three friends heard a most pitiful story, which was very nearly as follows: