THE DRUDGE AND THE ANGEL. 
take a long walk after tea. It would be cool, we 
knew, and the stretch would prove enjoyable in 
every way. When a good distance from the Mis- 
sion we were attracted by the sounds of revelry. 
They were not the harsh, raucous noises that men 
make when at play, and this excited our curiosity 
to know the why and wherefore of it. We followed 
in the direction of the sounds of jollity, and came 
upon a number of young girls dancing, etc., etc. 
They had just been released from the bondage and 
degradation of the fattening room," and in the 
course of a few days the husbands chosen for them 
by their parents would come and take them away 
to their new abode. Ignorant of the fate in store 
for them, they resolved to be merry. The sight 
of those bonny, jolly girls at play pleased me. I 
could not grudge them their fleeting joy, but it 
filled me with sadness as I guessed the sufferings 
awaiting some of them in their unknown to- 
morrows. After I had got back to' my home again 
at Oron, I heard a story about one of these girls 
sad enough, surely, to move a heart of stone ! 
The husband who came to claim her was, said Mr. 
Christie, as vile-looking a specimen of a man as he 
had ever seen. She shrank fro'm him in horror, and 
begged her parents to pay back the dowry and she 
would do anything humanly possible to repay 
them. They refused, saying they would be for 
ever disgraced if she did not accompany her hus- 
band to his home. She threatened to throw herself 
into the river, but it was of no avail. Her parents 
literally turned her out of house and home. She 
was not long away. So abominable was her treat- 
ment as the new wife (the latest comer amongst 
