."

Molly laughed aloud. "We don't confess money, Mrs. Robinson, we confess
sins; but perhaps you think money is a sin, and if that's so, this house
is the innocentest place I ever lived in. Sit down, Mrs. Robinson, and be
friendly. I want to ax you a question. Has thim two, upstairs, got any
money? What made you pop off so sudden? Didn't they pay your wages?"

Phoebe seated herself on the edge of a chair, and sat up very straight.
She felt that the answer to this question was a very important one. She
herself cared nothing for the Haverleys, but Mike lived with them, and
was their head man, and it was not consistent with her position among
the members of the congregation and in the various societies to which she
belonged, that her husband should be in the employ of poor and
consequently unrespected people.

"My wages was paid, every cent," she said, "and as to their money, I can
tell you one thing, that I heard him say to his sister with my own ears,
that he was goin' to build a town on them meaders, with streets and
chu'ches, and stores on the corners of the block, and a libr'y and a
bank, and she said she wouldn't object if he left the trees standin'
between the house and the meaders, so that they could see the steeples
and nothin' else. And more than that, I can tell you," said Phoebe,
warming as she spoke, "the Bannister family isn't and never was intimate
with needy and no-count families, and nobody could be more sociable and
friendly with this family than Miss Dora is, writin' to her four or five
times a week, and as I said to Mike, not ten minutes ago, if Mr. Haverley
and Miss Dora should git married, her money and his money would make this
the finest place in the county, and I tol' him to mind an' play his cards
well and stay here as butler or coachman--I didn't care which; and he
said he would like coachman best, as he was used to hosses."

Now, considering that the patience of her own coachman must be pretty
nearly worn out, and believing that what she had said would inure to her
own reputation, and probably to Mike's benefit as well, and that its
force might be impaired by any further discussion of the subject, Phoebe
arose and took a dignified leave.

Molly stood some moments in reflection.

"Bedad," she said aloud, "to-morrer I'll clane thim lamp-chimbleys and
swape the bidrooms."

CHAPTER XXIV

THE DOCTOR'S MISSION

The letter which Phoebe brought was a long and cordial one, in which Dor