"
"It is too true," replied Mrs. Sandford. "The poor child came to see
me in answer to an advertisement."
"Have you engaged her?"
"No. She is too young and inexperienced for the place. But something
must be done for her."
"What? Have you thought out anything? You may count on my sympathy
and co-operation."
"The first thing to be done," replied Mrs. Sandford, "is to lift her
out of her present wretched condition. She must not be left where
she is, burdened with the support of her drunken and debased father.
She is too weak for that--too young and beautiful and innocent to be
left amid the temptations and sorrows of a life such as she must
lead if no one comes to her rescue."
"But what will become of her father if you remove his child from
him?" asked Mrs. Birtwell.
Her voice betrayed concern. The carriage stopped at the residence of
Mrs. Sandford, and the two ladies went in.
"What will become of her wretched father?"
Mrs. Birtwell repeated her question as they entered the parlors.
"He is beyond our reach," was answered. "When a man falls so low,
the case is hopeless. He is the slave of an appetite that never
gives up its victims. It is a sad and a sorrowful thing, I know, to
abandon all efforts to save a human soul, to see it go drafting off
into the rapids with the sound of the cataract in your ears, and it
is still more sad and sorrowful to be obliged to hold back the
loving ones who could only perish in their vain attempts at rescue.
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