Fannie looked at her son, and she seemed to see him more clearly than
she had ever seen him before,--his foppery, his meanness, his cowardice.

"Well," she answered with a sigh, "it can't be no wuss den what 's
already happened."

"You 'll see, you 'll see," the boy reiterated.

Minty Brown allowed no wind of thought to cool the fire of her
determination. She left Hattie Sterling's soon after Joe, and he was
still walking the floor and uttering dire forebodings when she rang the
bell below and asked for the Hamiltons.

Mrs. Jones ushered her into her fearfully upholstered parlour, and then
puffed up stairs to tell her lodgers that there was a friend there from
the South who wanted to see them.

"Tell huh," said Mrs. Hamilton, "dat dey ain't no one hyeah wants to see
huh."

"No, no," Kitty broke in.

"Heish," said her mother; "I 'm goin' to boss you a little while yit."

"Why, I don't understan' you, Mis' Hamilton," puffed Mrs. Jones. "She 's
a nice-lookin' lady, an' she said she knowed you at home."

"All you got to do is to tell dat ooman jes' what I say."