Balancing the good and evil of this life in her dark little mind,
Lotty determined that one thing there was for which it was worth
while to make sacrifices, one end which she felt strong enough to
keep persistently in view. Ida should be brought up "respectably"--
it was her own word; she should be kept absolutely free from the
contamination of her mother's way of living; nay, should, when the
time came, go to school, and have good chances. And at the end of
all this was a far-off hope, a dim vision of possibilities, a vague
trust that her daughter might perchance prove for her a means of
returning to that world of "respectability" from which she was at
present so hopelessly shut out. She would keep making efforts to get
into an honest livelihood as often as an occasion presented itself;
and Ida should always live with "respectable" people, cost what it
might.
The last resolution was only adhered to for a few months. Lotty
could not do without her little one, and eventually brought it back
to her own home. It is not an infrequent thing to find little
children living in disorderly houses. In the profession Lotty had
chosen there are, as in all professions, grades and differences.
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