"Yes; my home is in Chicago. I have been East nearly six months on
business for my firm, and now am recalled."

She looked pensively into the fire, and he thought he heard a little
sigh, which perhaps encouraged him to go on, though it was with
something like embarrassment that he said,--

"I felt before going so far that I ought to make a call on some of the
good people here: it may be years before I return."

"H'm," muttered Molly; "I tell you, if I ever get away I'll never want
to come back."

"Well, nobody'd want to have you, either," muttered her brother in
return. "A girl who can't add two simple little numbers!"

Molly contented herself with making a face at him, and the two by the
fire continued their rather patchy discourse:--

"I have sometimes thought," said Sara, "that we will have to leave here
now, though I haven't much of an idea where we should go, or what I
could do--but I must do something soon."

He was longing to ask all sorts of questions, but dared not; instead, he
leaned forward, and said earnestly,--

"Miss Olmstead, I have been thinking of that, and I want you to promise
me you will not take any decisive step without consulting my aunt. If I
had known--all, I would have brought her with me, but here is her latest