th, and the requisite
secrecy and absence of publicity due to himself. He at once suggested
it.

"You see she was a mighty good woman and you ought to know her, for she
was my old nurse"--

The girl glanced at him with a sudden impatience.

"Honest Injin," said Jack solemnly; "she did nurse me through my last
cough. I ain't playing old family gags on you now."

"Oh, dear," burst out the girl impulsively, "I do wish you wouldn't ever
play them again. I wish you wouldn't pretend to be my uncle; I wish you
wouldn't make me pass for your niece. It isn't right. It's all wrong.
Oh, don't you know it's all wrong, and can't come right any way? It's
just killing me. I can't stand it. I'd rather you'd say what I am and
how I came to you and how you pitied me."

They had luckily entered a narrow side street, and the sobs which shook
the young girl's frame were unnoticed. For a few moments Jack felt a
horrible conviction stealing over him, that in his present attitude
towards her he was not unlike that hound Stratton, and that, however
innocent his own intent, there was a sickening resemblance to the
situation on the boat in the base advantage he had taken of her
friendlessness. He had never told her that he was a gambler like
Stratton, and that his peculiarly infelix reputation among women made it
impossible for him to assist her, except by a stealth or the deception
he had practiced, without compromising her. He who had for years faced
the sneers and half-frightened opposition of the world dared not tell
the truth to this girl, from whom he expected nothing and who did not
interest him. He felt he was almost slinking at her side. At last he
said desperately:--

"But I snatched them bald-headed at the organ, Sophy, didn't I?"

"Oh yes," said the girl, "you played beautifully and grandly. It was so
good of you, too. For I think, somehow, Madame Bance had been a little
suspicious of you, but that settled it. Everybody thought it was fine,
and some thought it was your profession. Perhaps," she added timidly,
"it is?"

"I play a good deal, I reckon," said Jack, with a grim humor which did
not, however, amuse him.

"I wish I could, and make money by it," said the girl eagerly. Jack
winced, but she did not notice it as she went on hurriedly: "That's what
I wanted to talk to you about. I want to leave the school and make my
own living. Anywhere where people won't know me and where I can be alone
and work. I shall die here amo