believed a small but secure income
remained to her; and it was only by a few lines addressed to her, and
inclosed in a letter to Polly, that she was at length brought to see
that she was actually without means of support for a single day, and
that hitherto she had been a dependent on Fagan's kindness for a home.

I believe that this communication was not made with any harshness or
want of feeling; on the contrary, that it was conveyed with whatever
delicacy the writer could summon to so ungracious a task. It is more
than probable, besides, that Fagan would not have made it at all, or
at least not for a considerable time, had he not at that moment been
involved in an angry correspondence with Polly, who had flatly refused
to quit my mother and return home. Irritated at this, and driven to
extremities, he had determined in this last course to accomplish his
object.

My mother was so much overwhelmed by the tidings that she thought she
could not have understood them aright, and hastened to Polly's room,
with the letter in her hand.

"Tell me," cried she, "what this means. Is it possible--can it be
true--that I am actually a beggar?"

Polly read the lines with a flashing eye and heightened color, but never
uttered a word.

"Speak, Polly, dearest, and relieve me of this terrible fear, if you
can," cried my mother, passionately.

"I understand what this means," said Polly, crushing the note in her
hand; "this is a question that requires explanation. You must leave it
to me. I'll go up to town this evening, and before the end of the week
I 'll be back with you. My father is mistaken,--that's all; and you have
misunderstood him!"

And thus planning, and excusing and contradicting herself, she at last
succeeded in allaying my mother's fears and assuring her that it was a
mere misapprehension, and that a few days would suffice to rectify it.

My mother insisted that Polly should not travel alone, and that Gabriac
should be her companion,--an arrangement to which she acceded with
comparative ease and willingness. Had Polly Fagan and Gabriac merely met
as people meet in society, with no other opportunities of knowing each
other than are presented by the ordinary intercourse with the world,
the great likelihood is that they should have conceived for each other
a rooted dislike. There was scarcely one single subject on which they
thought in common. They differed in ideas of country and people. Their
tastes, their prejudices