They walked on in silence for a few moments. Then a bright idea struck
Mr. Hamlin. He suddenly remembered that in one of his many fits
of impulsive generosity and largesse he had given to an old negro
retainer--whose wife had nursed him through a dangerous illness--a house
and lot on the river bank. He had been told that they had opened a small
laundry or wash-house. It occurred to him that a stroll there and a
call upon "Uncle Hannibal and Aunt Chloe" combined the propriety and
respectability due to the young person he was with, and the requisite
secrecy and absence of publicity due to himself. He at once suggested
it.

"You see she was a mighty good woman and you ought to know her, for she
was my old nurse"--

The girl glanced at him with a sudden impatience.

"Honest Injin," said Jack solemnly; "she did nurse me through my last
cough. I ain't playing old family gags on you now."

"Oh, dear," burst out the girl impulsively, "I do wish you wouldn't ever
play them again. I wish you wouldn't pretend to be my uncle; I wish you
wouldn't make me pass for your niece. It isn't right. It's all wrong.
Oh, don't you know it's all wrong, and can't come right any way? It's
just killing me. I can't stand it. I'd rather you'd say what I am and
how I came to you and how you pitied me."

They had luckily entered a narrow side street, and the sobs which shook
the young girl's frame were unnoticed. For a few moments Jack felt a
horrible conviction stealing over him, that in his present attitude
towards her he was not unlike that hound Stratton, and that, however