cognized the familiar figure of his
landlady. What could she have to do in this house? he asked himself.

"Mrs. Forbush!" he exclaimed.

"Philip!" exclaimed Mrs. Forbush, in a surprise as great as his own,
for she had never asked where her young lodger worked, and was not aware
that he was in the employ of her cousin's husband and well acquainted
with the rich uncle whom she had not seen for years.

"Do you know each other?" demanded Mrs. Pitkin, whose turn it was to be
surprised.

"This young gentleman lodges in my house," answered Mrs. Forbush.

"Young gentleman!" repeated Alonzo, with a mocking laugh.

Philip looked at him sternly. He had his share of human nature, and
it would have given him satisfaction to thrash the insolent young
patrician, as Alonzo chose to consider himself.

"And what do you want here, young man?" asked Mrs. Pitkin in a frosty
tone, addressing Phil of course.

"I wished to see Mr. Carter," answered Phil.

"Really, Mr. Carter seems to be very much in request!" sneered Mrs.
Pitkin. "No doubt he will be very much disappointed when he hears
what he has lost. You will have to go to Florida to see him, I think,
however." She added, after a pause: "It will not be well for either of
you to call again. Mr. Carter will understand the motive of your calls."

"How cruel you are, Lavinia!" said Mrs. Forbush sadly.

"My name is Mrs. Pitkin!" said that lady frigidly.

"You have not forgotten that we are cousins, surely?"

"I do not care to remember it, Mrs. Forbush. Good-day."

There was no alternative but for Mrs. Forbush to say "good-day" also,
and to descend the steps.

Philip joined her in the street.

"Are you really the cousin of Mrs. Pitkin?" he asked.

"Yes," answered Mrs. Forbush. "I bear the same relationship to Mr.
Carter that she does. We were much together as girls, and were both
educated at the same expensive schools. I offended my relatives by
marrying Mr. Forbush, whose fault was that he was poor, and chiefly,
I think, through the efforts of Lavinia Pitkin I was cast out by the
family. But where did you meet Uncle Oliver?"

Philip explained the circumstances already known to the reader.

"Mr. Carter seems to me to be a kind-hearted man," he said. "I don't
believe he would have cast you off if he had not been influenced by
other parties."

"So I think," said Mrs. Forbush. "I will tell you," she continued, after
a pause, "what drew me here this afternoon. I am struggling