this is the easiest mode of cheating the world and themselves that could
be devised.'

'Well,' replied Mrs Town, 'I have always made it a point never to place
my name on a subscription list, so I shall be obliged to decline. I
hope,' she said to the disappointed lady, who had been advised to call
upon her because she was rich, 'I hope you will meet with better success
elsewhere.'

'I hope I shall,' the lady could scarce forbear saying, as Mrs Town
curtsied gracefully in answer to her embarrassed nod, but she soon
calmed her excited feelings and passed on.

'Poor Mrs D.!' said Mrs Town. 'This must be very unpleasant business. I
can't see what could induce a lady of her respectability to engage in
it.'

'I know of no one who could perform the task better,' said Mrs Maurice.

'Certainly not, but--' Mrs Town paused, and then added, hesitatingly,
'it seems a little too much like begging.'

'It surely is begging,' said Mrs Maurice, with much animation, 'begging
for the poor, the weak, the desolate, the unfriended--these have claims
upon those who to-morrow may be in their places--and more, Mrs Town, it
is begging for our brethren, our sisters--these have claims upon us that
cannot be waived--but above all, it is begging for the King of kings,
Him who hesitated not to give His own Son for us, and His claims cover
all others. Not only our gold and silver are His, but ourselves.'