60 TRUE RICHES; OR,

 

other. ‘Would you like to go home with me,
Fanny?” addressing the child. ‘‘Come,”—and she
held out her hands.

But the child shrank closer to the side of Edward,
and looked up into his face with a silent appeal that
his heart could not resist.

“Thank you, ma’am,” he returned politely. “ But
we won't trouble you to do that. I will take her to
my own home for the present. Would you like to
go with me, dear ?”’

Fanny answered with a grateful look, as she lifted
her beautiful eyes again to his face.

And so, after the woman and the domestic had
departed, Edward Claire locked up the house, and
taking the willing child by the hand, led her away
to his own humble dwelling.

Having turned himself resolutely away from evil,
already were the better impulses of his nature quick-
ened into active life. A beautiful humanity was
rising up to fill the place so recently about to be
consecrated to the worship of a hideous selfishness.

CHAPTER VI.

EpWARD CLAIRE was in no doubt as to the recep-
tion the motherless child would receive from his
kind-hearted wife. A word or two of explanation
enabled her to comprehend the feeling from which
he had acted.