oo," Ann
Eliza murmured to herself; but she was well-trained in the arts of
renunciation, and after a scarcely perceptible pause she plunged into a
detailed description of the dress-maker's "turn."

Evelina, when her curiosity was roused, was an insatiable questioner,
and it was supper-time before she had come to the end of her enquiries
about Miss Mellins; but when the two sisters had seated themselves at
their evening meal Ann Eliza at last found a chance to say: "So she on'y
had a speck of dust in her."

Evelina understood at once that the reference was not to Miss Mellins.
"Yes--at least he thinks so," she answered, helping herself as a matter
of course to the first cup of tea.

"On'y to think!" murmured Ann Eliza.

"But he isn't SURE," Evelina continued, absently pushing the teapot
toward her sister. "It may be something wrong with the--I forget what he
called it. Anyhow, he said he'd call round and see, day after to-morrow,
after supper."

"Who said?" gasped Ann Eliza.

"Why, Mr. Ramy, of course. I think he's real nice, Ann Eliza. And I
don't believe he's forty; but he DOES look sick. I guess he's pretty
lonesome, all by himself in that store. He as much as told me so, and
somehow"--Evelina paused and bridled--"I kinder thought that maybe his
saying he'd call round about the clock was on'y just an excuse. He said
it just as I was going out of the store. What you think, Ann Eliza?"

"Oh, I don't har'ly know." To save herself, Ann Eliza could produce
nothing warmer.

"Well, I don't pretend to be smarter than other folks," said Evelina,
putting a conscious hand to her hair, "but I guess Mr. Herman Ramy
wouldn't be sorry to pass an evening here, 'stead of spending it all
alone in that poky little place of his."

Her self-consciousness irritated Ann Eliza.

"I guess he's got plenty of friends of his own," she said, almost
harshly.

"No, he ain't, either. He's got hardly any."

"Did he tell you that too?" Even to her own ears there was a faint sneer
in the interrogation.

"Yes, he did," said Evelina, dropping her lids with a smile. "He seemed
to be just crazy to talk to somebody--somebody agreeable, I mean. I
think the man's unhappy, Ann Eliza."

"So do I," broke from the elder sister.

"He seems such an educated man, too. He was reading the paper when
I went in. Ain't it sad to think of his being reduced to that little
store, after being years at Tiff'ny's, and one of the head men in their
clock-de