“There, there, there!” returned Mrs. Boffin. “Come, come! Say no more of it, Betty. It was a mistake, a mistake. Any one of us might have made it in your place, and felt just as you do.”

“The Lord bless ye!” said the old woman, stretching out her hand.

“Now, see, Betty,” pursued the sweet compassionate soul, holding the hand kindly, “what I really did mean, and what I should have begun by saying out, if I had only been a little wiser and handier. We want to move Johnny to a place where there are none but children; a place set up on purpose for sick children; where the good doctors and nurses pass their lives with children, talk to none but children, touch none but children, comfort and cure none but children.”

“Is there really such a place?” asked the old woman, with a gaze of wonder.