Page 208 (1/1)

"No, she o back to-morrow--certainly the day after," Aunt Betsy replied, her voice tre at this fresh i Katy

The quaver in her voice touched Mark's sympathy "She was old and siht else, helped him to a decision "She must be homesick in the Bowery; he should die if co; he would take her to his mother's and keep her until theHelen that night, of course, and then suffering her to act accordingly"

This he proposed to his client; assuring her of hisso o there, instead of "up to Katy's," where they were in such confusion that Aunt Betsy was at last persuaded, and was soon riding uptown in a Twenty-third Street stage, with Mark Ray her _vis-à-vis_ and Mattie at her right Why Mattie was there Mark could not conjecture; and perhaps she did not know herself, unless it were that, disappointed in her call on Mrs Ca on Mrs Banker How then was she chagrined, when, as the stage left them at a handsome brownstone front, near Fifth Avenue Hotel, Mark said to her, as if she were not of course expected to go in, "Please tell yourwith Mrs Banker to-day Has she baggage at your house?--If so, ill send around for it at once Your number, please?"

His manner was so offhand and yet so polite that Mattie could neither resist hi of disappointave the required nu in a choked voice: "You'll coo ho that so if she herself were in fault

With a good-by to Mark, whose bow atoned for a great deal, Mattie walked sloay, leaving Mark greatly relieved Aunt Betsy was as much as he cared to have on his hands at once, and as he led her up the steps, he began to wonderthat stranger into her house, unbidden and unsought

"I'll tell her just the truth," was his rapid decision, and assu neither to be curious nor iing her a chair before the grate, went in quest of his mother, who he found was out