e was still sufficiently youthful not to be accused
of wearing a flower too artificial.

'It was so sudden! so sad!' she continued. 'We esteemed him so much. I
thought you might be in need of sympathy, and hoped I might--Dear Mrs.
Harrington! can you bear to speak of it?'

'I can tell you anything you wish to hear, my lady,' the widow replied.
Lady Racial had expected to meet a woman much more like what she
conceived a tradesman's wife would be: and the grave reception of her
proffer of sympathy slightly confused her. She said:

'I should not have come, at least not so early, but Sir Jackson,
my husband, thought, and indeed I imagined--You have a son, Mrs.
Harrington? I think his name is--'

'Evan, my lady.'

'Evan. It was of him we have been speaking. I imagined that is, we
thought, Sir Jackson might--you will be writing to him, and will let
him know we will use our best efforts to assist him in obtaining some
position worthy of his--superior to--something that will secure him from
the harassing embarrassments of an uncongenial employment.'

The widow listened to this tender allusion to the shears without a smile
of gratitude. She replied: 'I hope my son will return in time to bury
his father, and he will thank you himself, my lady.'

'He has no taste for--a--for anything in the shape of trade, has he,
Mrs. Harrington?'

'I am afraid not, my lady.'

'Any position--a situation--that of a clerk even--would be so much
better for him!'

The widow remained impassive.

'And many young gentlemen I know, who are clerks, and are enabled to
live comfortably, and make a modest appearance in society; and your son,
Mrs. Harrington, he would find it surely an improvement upon--many would
think it a step for him.'

'I am bound to thank you for the interest you take in my son, my lady.'

'Does it not quite suit your views, Mrs. Harrington?' Lady Racial was
surprised at the widow's manner.

'If my son had only to think of himself, my lady.'

'Oh! but of course,'--the lady understood her now--'of course! You
cannot suppose, Mrs. Harrington, but that I should anticipate he would
have you to live with him, and behave to you in every way as a dutiful
son, surely?

'A clerk's income is not very large, my lady.'

'No; but enough, as I have said, and with the management you would
bring, Mrs. Harrington, to produce a modest, respectable maintenance. My
respect for your husband, Mrs. Harrington, makes me anxious to press