succeeding in any. His habits were not strictly
temperate, and he had died two years previous. His wife hired a house in
Clinton Place, and took boarders, barely succeeding in making both ends
meet at the end of the year. The truth was that she was not a good
manager, and preferred to talk of her gentility and former wealth to
looking after the affairs of the household. She was very much like her
son in this respect.

Among Mrs. Crawford's boarders was Mr. Gilbert, who is already known to
the reader as the book-keeper of Rockwell & Cooper. It has been
mentioned also that he was Roswell's cousin, being a son of Mrs.
Crawford's only brother. He, too, was not unlike his aunt and cousin,
and all three combined to hate and despise Dick, whom Mrs. Crawford saw
fit to regard as her son's successful rival.

"How's the boot-black, Cousin James?" asked Roswell, on the evening
succeeding that which Dick had passed at Mr. Rockwell's.

"Putting on airs worse than ever," replied Gilbert.

"Mr. Rockwell has a singular taste, to say the least," said Mrs.
Crawford, "or he wouldn't hire a boy from the streets, and give him such
extravagant wages. To pay such a vagabond ten dollars a week, when a boy
of good family, like Roswell, can get but four, is perfectly
ridiculous."

"I don't believe he gets so much," said Roswell. "It's only one of his
big stories."

"You're mistaken there," said Gilbert. "He does get exactly that."

"Are you sure of it?"

"I ought to be, since I received directions from Mr. Rockwell to-day to
pay him that amount to-morrow night, that being the end of the week."

"I never heard of such a thing!" ejaculated Mrs. Crawford. "The man must
be a simpleton."

"If he is, there's another besides him."

"Who do you mean?"

"Mrs. Rockwell."

"Has she made acquaintance with the boot-black, then?" asked Roswell,
with a sneer.

"Yes, he visited them last evening at their house."

"Did he tell you so?"

"Yes."

"I should think they'd feel honored by such a visitor."

"Probably they did, for Mrs. Rockwell made him a present of a gold
watch."

"WHAT!" exclaimed Roswell and his mother in concert.

"It's true. I sent him out to ask the time to-day, when he pulled out a
new gold watch with an air of importance, and told me the time."

"Was it a good watch?"

"A very handsome one. It must have cost, with the chain, a hundred and
twenty-five dollars."

"The idea of a boot-black with a gold watch!" exclai