No, it could not, it should not happen, if she had power to prevent
it.

Rotha reached over the bed and put her arms about the head of the
invalid and fervently kissed the placid face. Then the girl's fair
head, with its own young face already ploughed deep with labor and
sorrow, fell on to the pillow, and rested there, while the silent
tears coursed down her cheeks.

"Not if I can prevent it," she whispered to the deaf ears. But in the
midst of her thought for another, and that other Willy's mother as
well as Ralph's, like a poisonous serpent crept up the memory of
Willy's bitter reproach. "It was cruel, very cruel."

In the agony of her heart the girl's soul turned one way only, and
that was towards him whose absence had occasioned this latest trouble.
"Ralph! Ralph!" she cried, and the tears that had left her eyes came
again in her voice.

But perhaps, after all, Willy was right. To be turned into the road
would not mean that this poor sufferer should die of the cold of the
hard winter. There were tender hearts round about, and shelter would
be found for her. Yet, no! it was Ralph's concernment, and what right
had they to take charity for his mother without his knowledge? Ralph
ought to be told, if they could tell him. Yes, he _must_ be told.

Having come to a settled resolution on this point, Rotha rose up from
the bed, and, brushing her tangled hair from her forehead, walked back
into the kitchen. Standing where she had stood while the constables
were there, she enacted every incident and heard every syllable