“By what, my child?”
“By making others happy. You have such great power of doing good, dear lady!” earnestly replied Lilith.
“What good can I do? I seem of no use in the world!” sighed the baroness.
“By your great wealth, madame,” modestly suggested Lilith.
“Oh, of course, I subscribe to all worthy charities that are brought to my notice. Le Grange attends to all that! That is, of course, my bounden duty, and I try to do it,” said the baroness.
“Yes, I know you are very liberal and very conscientious, but——”
“But what, my dear?”
“There are so many, many cases of great poverty, sickness and suffering outside of these organized charities! Aged, or ill, men and women, and little children, suffering in extremity for want of the barest necessaries of life, helpless and dying for lack of help, even in the midst of all these organized charities! These do a vast deal of good, but they cannot do everything! They cannot reach all the suffering!”
“How do you know?” inquired the lady.
“I know from what I see, and hear, and observe in the streets, and from what I learn when I go into the poorest tenement houses with Aunt Sophie.”