really thought as badly of me as that?"

"I know you better now," said Ambrose, gratefully.

"It is well you do. You have no idea how intimate your mother and I
used to be. She is five years my junior, I think, so that I regarded
her as a younger sister. It is many years since we met. And how is she
looking?"

"She shows the effects of bad health, but I don't think she looks
older than her years."

"We have both changed greatly, no doubt. It is to be expected. But you
can tell her that I have not forgotten the favorite companion of my
school days."

"I will do so, for I know it will warm her heart and brighten her
up."

"When we were girls together our worldly circumstances did not greatly
differ. But I married, and my husband was very successful in
business."

"While she married and lost all she had."

"It is often so. It might have been the other way. Your mother might
have been rich, and I poor; but I don't think she would have been
spoiled by prosperity any more than I have been. Now tell me how you
are situated."

"I am a clerk, earning twelve dollars a week."

"And your employer--is he kind and considerate?"

"He is just, but he has strict notions. Had he learned my slip the
other day he would have discharged me, perhaps had me arrested. Now,
thanks to your prompt kindness, he knows and will know nothing of
it."

"Is he likely to increase your salary?"

"He will probably raise me to fifteen dollars a week next January.
Then I can get along very well. At present it is difficult for me,
after sending my mother four dollars a week, to live on the balance of
my salary."

"I should think it would be."

"Still, I would have made it do, but for mother's falling sick, and so
needing a larger allowance."

"I hope she is not seriously ill," said Mrs. Merton, with solicitude.

"No, fortunately not. I think she will be as well as usual in a few
weeks."

"Tell her I inquired particularly for her, and that I send her my love
and remembrance."

"I shall be only too glad to do so."

The time slipped away so rapidly that Luke was surprised when, looking
at the French clock on the mantel, he saw that it lacked but a quarter
of ten o'clock.

"Mr. Kean," he said, glancing at the clock, "it is getting late."

"So it is," said Ambrose, rising. "I am afraid we have been
trespassing upon your kindness, Mrs. Merton."

"Not at all!" said Mrs. Merton, promptly. "I have enjoyed the evening,
I can assure you