ut he
seems prepossessed in her favor."

"If he can give a hundred dollars to her, he can give me a little
extra money; I'm going to ask him."

So he did the same evening.

"Will you give me ten dollars, father?" he asked.

"What for?"

"Oh, for various things. I need it."

"I give you an allowance of three dollars a week."

"I have a good many expenses."

"That will meet all your reasonable expenses. I was far from having as
much money as that when I was of your age."

"I don't see why you won't give me the money," said Godfrey,
discontentedly.

"I don't think you need it."

"You are generous enough to others."

"To whom do you refer?"

"You give plenty of money to that Irish boy and his mother."

"They have both rendered me great services. The boy saved me from
being robbed. The mother, in all probability, saved me from falling a
victim to smallpox. But that has nothing to do with your affairs. It
is scarcely proper for a boy like you to criticise his father's way of
disposing of his money."

"I confess I think Godfrey is right in commenting upon your
extraordinary liberality to the Burkes," observed Mrs. Preston.

"Lucinda," said her husband, gravely, "when my own wife deserted my
sick bed, leaving me to wrestle alone with a terrible and dangerous
disease, I was fortunate enough to find in Mrs. Burke a devoted nurse.
The money I have paid her is no adequate compensation, nor is it all
that I intend to do for her."

There was a part of this speech that startled Mrs. Preston. Never
before had her husband complained of her desertion of him in his
sickness, and she hoped that he had been imposed upon by the excuse
which she gave of saving herself for Godfrey. Now she saw that in this
she had not been altogether successful, and she regretted having
referred to Mrs. Burke, and so brought this reproach upon herself. She
felt it necessary to say something in extenuation.

"It was because I wanted to live for Godfrey," she said, with a
flushed face. "Nothing but that would have taken me away from you at
such a time. It was a great trial to me," she continued, putting up
her handkerchief to eyes that were perfectly dry.

"We will say no more about it," said Colonel Preston, gravely. "I
shall not refer to it, unless you undervalue my obligations to Mrs.
Burke."

Mrs. Preston thought it best not to reply, but on one thing that her
husband had said, she commented to Godfrey.

"Your father speaks of g