ce
inflamed by drink, gave her a peculiarly repulsive appearance. Of course
she was utterly unconscious of my presence in the house. Taking up her
position in the middle of the apartment, she placed her hands upon her
hips, and said, in a hoarse and angry voice--

"Come up out o' that! _You're_ a pretty one to be playing and singing,
when you owe me for two months' rent. You have been feasting, too, I
see. Where did you get the money? Why didn't you pay it to _me_? Have
you any money left?"

"No I have not."

"Come up out o' that! Why the devil don't you sell that humstrum of
yours, that harp, I mean, and raise the wind? It will bring a good ten
dollars, I'll be sworn. And why don't you take my advice and earn money
as other women do? You are handsome, the men would run after you like
mad. That nice, rich old gentleman, Mr. Letcher, that I brought to see
you, would have given you any amount of money if you had only treated
him kindly--but you frightened him away. Come up out o' that! Now, what
do you mean to do? I can't let you stay here any longer unless you raise
some money. This evening I'll fetch another nice gentleman here; and if
you cut up any of your _tantrums_ with _him_, I'll bundle you out into
the street this very night."

"If you bring any man here to molest me," said Mrs. Raymond,
spiritedly--"I will stab him to the heart, and then kill myself."

"Come out o' that," screamed the landlady, approaching Mrs. Raymond with
a threatening look, "don't think to frighten me with your tragical
airs. I must have my money, and so I'll take this harp and sell it, in
spite of you!"

She seized upon the instrument and was about to carry it off, when I
rushed forth from my place of concealment, exclaiming--

"Come up out o' that! Drop that instrument, you old harridan, or I'll
drop _you_! Do not imagine that this lady is entirely friendless. I am
here to protect her."

The astounded landlady put down the harp and began to mutter many
apologies, for I was extremely well dressed, and she probably believed
me to be some person of consequence who had become the protector and
patron of Mrs. Raymond.

"Oh, sir--I'm sure, sir--I didn't mean, sir--if I had known, sir--I beg
a thousand pardons, sir--"

"Come up out o' that!" cried I, "leave the room, instantly."

The landlady vanished with a celerity that was rather remarkable,
considering her extreme corpulence.

After a short pause, Mrs. Raymond said to me--

"