He felt a wild impulse to catch the little shrinking creature in his arms and bear her away to his own home, to warm and cheer and comfort her.

Was there ever before anything in the world so sweet, so helpless, so forlorn?
He looked around.

The children were all gone; he stood alone in the street with the foreign woman, and night was falling.

It was at this moment that Abby Rock, who had been watching from her window for the past few minutes, opened her door and came out, stepping quietly toward them, as if they were just the people she had expected to see.

De Arthenay hailed her as an angel from Heaven; and yet Abby did not look like an angel.
"Abby!" he cried.