pleasantly, but a shade too hard to imply a beautiful trust. She went on
much like the firm young lady enumerators who take the census: "By the
way--let me ask: Have you any regular business or occupation?"

"Not, I suppose, in the sense in which you mean the interrogation."

"Perhaps you have friends in the city, who--"

"Friends! Here! Good Lord--_no!_" said he, with exasperated vehemence.

"I gather," was surprised from her, "that you do not wish--"

"They are the last thing in the world that I desire. My experience in
that direction in New York quite sufficed me, I assure you. I came
here," said he, with rather too blunt an implication, "to be let alone."

"I was thinking of references, you know. You have friends in New York,
then?"

"Yes, I have two. But I doubt if you would regard them as serviceable
for references. The best of them is only a policeman; the other is a
yeggman by trade--his brother, by the way."

She was silent a moment, wondering if he were telling the truth, and
deciding what to say next. The young man used the silence to bolt his
coffee at a gulp and go hurriedly but deeply into the preserves.

"My aunt will be glad that you can make a remittance to-night. I will
take it to her for you with pleasure."