“I take a girl from the street!” ejaculated Mrs. Merton. “Albert, you must be crazy.”
“Not at all. I am sure you can find something for her to do,—cleaning knives, running of errands, going to market, or something of that kind.”
“This is a very strange proposal.”
“Why is it? At present she lives in the street, being driven from the only home she had, by the ill-treatment of a vicious grandmother. You can see what chance she has of growing up respectably.”
“But there are plenty such. I don’t see that it’s our business to look after them.”
“I don’t know why it is, but I’ve taken a fancy to this little girl.”
“She looks perfectly wild.”
“I won’t deny that she is rather uncivilized, but there’s a good deal in her. She’s as smart as a steel trap.”
“Smart enough to steal, probably.”
“Perhaps so, under temptation. I want to remove the temptation.”