Suddenly turning a corner, Betty's eyes fall upon a little group gathered round a doorstep not twenty yards away.
Three or four shabby little children and Captain Janet Scott. The Captain talking to them, with all that tenderness and loving sympathy that they have never had from their own mothers, poor mites, and for which their baby hearts are craving; the children looking up into her face with eager eyes.
The Captain! Just an accidental meeting in a dull and dirty street; but to Betty it is as though the Lord had sent one of His own bright angel-messengers straight from Heaven to help her!
She runs towards her eagerly; the Captain looks up, and turns to greet her young friend with a welcoming smile.
"Betty Langdale! My dear, I have been hoping every day to meet you."
"O Captain, I am so miserable! I've been so foolish, so wicked; I've made a dreadful mistake, and I don't know how to put it right. Do, do tell me what I ought to do!"
Captain Scott takes the girl's trembling hand, and looks attentively at her pale face and the dark rings under her eyes. Then she kisses the shabby little children all round, promising to come again soon, and, turning again to Betty, slips her hand through the girl's arm, and begins to walk slowly up the street.
"Tell me your trouble, dear. Perhaps it is not so bad as you suppose," she says, gently.
"Oh, but it is!" and Betty pours out the sad little story of her quarrel and its consequences. She does not spare herself; as nearly as she can recollect she repeats her exact words.
"You have been to the Lord about this, Betty?" asks the Captain, gravely.