morrow night?"





CHAPTER III

MRS. AND MISS GRAY


Mrs. Gray lived in Fortieth Street. For years Montgomery Brewster
had regarded her quiet, old-fashioned home as his own. The house
had once been her grandfather's, and it was one of the pioneers in
that part of the town. It was there she was born; in its quaint
old parlor she was married; and all her girlhood, her brief wedded
life, and her widowhood were connected with it. Mrs. Gray and
Montgomery's mother had been schoolmates and playmates, and their
friendship endured. When old Edwin Peter Brewster looked about for
a place to house his orphaned grandson, Mrs. Gray begged him to
let her care for the little fellow. He was three years older than
her Margaret, and the children grew up as brother and sister. Mr.
Brewster was generous in providing for the boy. While he was away
at college, spending money in a manner that caused the old
gentleman to marvel at his own liberality, Mrs. Gray was well paid
for the unused but well-kept apartments, and there never was a
murmur of complaint from Edwin Peter Brewster. He was hard, but he
was not niggardly.

It had been something of a struggle for Mrs. Gray to make both