"Oh, Miss Avondale!"

"Then I took a more charitable view, and came to the conclusion that the
first night he had been drinking. But," she added, with a faint smile at
Randolph's lugubrious face, "I apologize. And you have had your revenge;
for if I cut you on account of your smart clothes, you have tried to do
me a kindness on account of my plain ones."

"Oh, Miss Avondale," burst out Randolph, "if you only knew how sorry
and indignant I was at the bank--when--you know--the other day"--he
stammered. "I wanted to go with you to Mr. Revelstoke, you know, who had
been so generous to me, and I know he would have been proud to befriend
you until you heard from your friends."

"And I am very glad you did nothing so foolish," said the young
lady seriously, "or"--with a smile--"I should have been still more
aggravating to you when we met. The bank was quite right. Nor have I any
pathetic story like yours. Some years ago my little half-cousin whom
you saw lost his mother and was put in my charge by his father, with
a certain sum to my credit, to be expended for myself and the child.
I lived with an uncle, with whom, for some family reasons, the child's
father was not on good terms, and this money and the charge of the child
were therefore intrusted entirely to me; perhaps, also, because Bobby
and I were fond of each other and I was a friend of his mother. The
father was a shipmaster, always away on long voyages, and has been home
but once in the three years I have had charge of his son. I have not
heard from him since. He is a good-hearted man, but of a restless,
roving disposition, with no domestic tastes. Why he should suddenly
cease to provide for my little cousin--if he has done so--or if his
omission means only some temporary disaster to himself or his fortunes,