"Why did I blunder in on this road?" the lover asks. He had not
thought his situation so terrible as it seemed just now.

"I am doubtless the sorriest knave that ever lived here," he mourns,
but it only increases his determination to go directly to Esther.

"I guess Dr. Tarpion will not throw _me_ in the waste-basket! Seven
thousand dollars!"

David Lockwin feels as rich as Corkey.

It is a mad thing he is doing, this pulling of the door-bell at the old
home. The balcony is overhead. Never mind little Davy! We can live
without him, but we cannot live without Esther. Ah that Tarpion! that
base Tarpion! Probably he intends to marry her! It is none too soon
to pull this bell. Now David Lockwin will enter, never to be driven
forth. He will enter among his books. Never mind his books. It is
she, SHE, SHE! Till death part them SHE is his. It is the seven
thousand dollars that gives him this lion-like courage. Esther needs
him. He has come.

The door opens. A pleasant-faced lady appears.

"Call Mrs. Lockwin, please."

"Mrs. Lockwin? Oh, yes. I believe she did live here. I do not know
where she lives now, but it is on Prairie avenue. After her father
died she went home to live."