THE SISTER OF CHARITY; OR, FROM BERMONDSEY TO BELGRAVIA. BY MRS. CHALLICE. "Philanthropy must own no party." IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 1857. 249. N. 2317. ΤΟ LADY MOLESWORTH, A TRIBUTE TO HER SYMPATHY IN THE CAUSE OF PROGRESS AND A MARK OF RESPECT TO THE MEMORY OF HER HUSBAND, THE LATE RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR WILLIAM MOLESWORTH, BART., M.P. BY THE AUTHORESS. THE SISTER OF CHARITY. CHAPTER I. The Pawnbroker's Shop-The Railway "Rough"-The Gin Palace The Poor Parson-The Magdalen that can't be-The Starving Artist and his chef-d'œuvre. On a bleak night of November, a few people stood round the doorway of a house in one of the most poverty-stricken neighbourhoods of London. This doorway was the entrance of sin and woe; of the latter as the frequent precursor to the former :-in fact, it was a pawnbroker's shop. Tears now dropped on its threshold from the eyes of a young, but emaciated woman, whose shoulders were scarcely covered by a patched and faded gown. In her arms she clutched a sleeping babe; a shawl partly screened the little unconscious one from the cold wind; but the next moment it was suddenly VOL. I. B |