Her reputation Grace owed first to her father's misdeeds, for which the
girl could in no way be to blame, and second, to the all-powerful Ally,
without whom the making of any reputation, good or bad, is impossible.
The Doctor knew the girl well. When she was a little tot and a member
of Martha's Sunday school class, she was at the house frequently. Later
as a member of the church she herself was a teacher and an active worker.
Then came the father's crime and conviction, followed soon by the
mother's death, and the girl was left to shift for herself. She had
kept herself alive by working here and there, in the canning factory
and restaurants, and wherever she could. No one would give her a place
in a home.
The young people in the church, imitating their elders, shunned her, and
it was not considered good policy to permit her to continue teaching in
the Sunday school. No mother wanted her child to associate with a
criminal's daughter; naturally she drifted away from the regular
services, and soon it was publicly announced that her name had been
dropped from the roll of membership. After that she never came.
It was not long until the girl had such a name that no self respecting
man or woman dared be caught recognizing her on the street.
The people always spoke of her as "that Grace Conner."
The girl, hurt so often, grew to fear everyone. She strove to avoid
meeting people on the street, or meeting them, passed with downcast
eyes, not daring to greet them.
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