"Can I not send them home for you?"
"No I don't want them sent home. They are for a poor woman and her
suffering children, who live about a square from here in Lear's Court."
Paul stood thoughtfully a moment before handing her the basket, and
said--"That court has a very bad reputation; had I not better accompany
you? I hope you will not consider my offer as an intrusion, but I do not
think it is safe for you to venture there alone."
"If you think it is not safe I will accept of your company; but I never
thought of danger for myself in the presence of that fainting woman and
her hungry children. Do you know her? Her name is Mrs. Gough." "I think
I do. If it is the person I mean, I remember her when she was as
lighthearted and happy a girl as I ever saw, but she married against her
parents' consent, a worthless fellow named Joe Gough, and in a short
time she disappeared from the village and I suppose she has come home,
broken in health and broken in spirit."
"And I am afraid she has come home to die.
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