and added a little awkwardly, and coloring, that he had seen Bobby only
twice.

"And you still have this remarkable photograph and letter?" she said,
perhaps a little too carelessly.

"Yes. Would you like to see them?"

"Very much," she returned quickly; and then added, with a laugh, "you
are making me quite curious."

"If you would allow me to see you home," said Randolph, "we have to pass
the street where my room is, and," he added timidly, "I could show them
to you."

"Certainly," she replied, with sublime unconsciousness of the cause of
his hesitation; "that will be very nice?"

Randolph was happy, albeit he could not help thinking that she was
treating him like the absent Bobby.

"It's only on Commercial Street, just above Montgomery," he went on. "We
go straight up from the wharf"--he stopped short here, for the bulk of a
bystander, a roughly clad miner, was pressing him so closely that he was
obliged to resist indignantly--partly from discomfort, and partly from a
sense that the man was overhearing him. The stranger muttered a kind of
apology, and moved away.

"He seems to be perpetually in your way," said Miss Avondale, smiling.
"He was right behind you, and you nearly trod on his toes, when you