if I can
obtain the situation."

"Of which there can be no doubt, Miss Ellison," returned Paul, "if your
qualifications are such as to meet the approval of Mr. C----, which I
presume they are. I will certainly call upon him and secure you the
place, if possible. Tell your mother that if in this or in any other
way I can serve either you or her, I will do it with sincere pleasure.
Please take to her my kind regards."

Lucy warmly expressed her thanks. On rising to depart, she said, "When
shall I call in, Mr. Burgess, to hear the result of your interview with
Mr. C----?"

"You needn't give yourself the trouble of calling at all, Miss
Ellison," replied Mr. Burgess. "The moment I have seen the person of
whom we were speaking, I will either call upon your mother or send her
a note."

"You are very kind," dropped almost involuntarily from Lucy's lips, as,
with a graceful inclination of her body, she drew her veil over her
face, and, turning from the merchant, walked quickly away.

When Paul went home at dinner-time, he said to his wife, "I am sure you
couldn't guess who I had for a visitor this morning."

"Then of course it would be useless for me to try," replied the wife,
smiling. "Who was it?"

"You know the Ellisons?"

"Yes."

"Mr. Ellison, you remember, died about a year ago."

"Yes."

"At the time of his death it was rumoured that his estate was involved,
but never having had any business transactions with him, I had no
occasion to investigate the matter, and did not really know what had
been the result of its settlement. This morning I was greatly surprised
to receive a visit from Lucy Ellison, who had grown up into a beautiful
young woman."

"Indeed!" ejaculated the wife. "And what did she want?"

"She came at her mother's request to solicit my influence with Mr.
C----, who is in want of a French teacher. She said that their
circumstances were very much changed since her father's death and that
it had become necessary for her to do something as a means of
supporting the family. The salary given by Mr. C---- to his French
teacher is five hundred dollars. I really pitied the young thing from
my heart. Think of our Mary, in two or three years from this, when, if
ever, a cloudless sky should bend over her, going to some old friend of
her father's, and almost tearfully soliciting him to beg for her, of
another, the privilege of toiling for bread. It made my heart ache."

"She must be very young," remark