-oh, well, you ought to meet Hermy!"

"Mrs. Trapes, I have!"

"Eh? You have? My lan'!" Mrs. Trapes bolted a caramel in her
astonishment and thereafter stared at Ravenslee with watering eyes. "An'
you to set there an' never tell me!" quoth she, "an' Hermy never told
me--well, well! When did ye meet her? Whereabouts? How?"

"About half an hour ago! Coming up the stairs! I carried her grip!"

"Well!" exclaimed Mrs. Trapes, staring, "well, well!" and she continued
to munch candy and to stare and say "well!" at intervals until arrested
by a new thought. "That b'y!" she exclaimed. "Was Arthur with her?"

"No," answered Ravenslee, wrinkling his brows, "I lost him on my way
home."

Mrs. Trapes sighed and shook her head.

"The sun sure rises and sets for her in that b'y--an' him only her
stepbrother at that!"

"Her stepbrother?"

"Yes!" nodded Mrs. Trapes emphatically. "Hermy's ma were a lady, same as
Hermy is; so were her pa, I mean a gentleman, of course. But Hermy's
father died, an' then her ma, poor soul, goes an' marries a good-lookin'
loafer way beneath her, a man as weren't fit to black her shoes, let
alone take 'em off! And Arthur's his father's child. Oh, a good enough
b'y as b'ys go, but wild, now and then, and rough, like his dad."

"I see!" nodded her hearer, thoughtfully.

"Now me, though married ten long year, never 'ad no children, so ever
since Hermy's mother died, I've tried to watch over her and help her
as much as I could. She's had a mighty hard struggle, one thing and
another, Mr. Geoffrey, an' now I've known her an' loved her so long it
kind o' seems as if she belonged to me--almost!"

"She looks very good and--brave!" said Mr. Ravenslee.

"Good!" cried Mrs. Trapes, and snorted. "I tell you she's jest a angel
o' light, Mr. Geoffrey. If you'd seen her, like I have, goin' from one
poor little sick child to another, kissing their little hot faces,
tellin' 'em stories, payin' for doctor's stuff out of her bit o'
savings, mendin' their clo'es--an' prayin' over 'em when they
died--why--I guess you'd think she was a angel too! One sure thing,"
said Mrs. Trapes rising, "there ain't a breathin' man in all this whole
round earth as is fit to go down on 'is knees an' kiss 'er little
foot--not a one! No, sir!"

"No, I don't think there is!" said Mr. Ravenslee slowly.

"As for that Bud M'Ginnis," cried Mrs. Trapes, seizing on the coffee-pot
much as if it had been that gentleman's throat, "I'd--I'd like