not be seen.

"Mrs. Howland is living, I presume?" said he, at length, in a tone
as indifferent as he could assume; but which was, nevertheless,
unsteady.

"Yes. She was living when I came away."

Andrew drew a quick breath, and then his laboring chest found relief
in a long expiration.

"Poor old man! I'm sorry for him," came from his lips in a few
moments afterwards. The tone was half indifferent, yet expressed
some sympathy.

"Everybody seems sorry for him," said Winters. "It has broken him
down very much. He looks ten years older."

"Is he entirely out of business?" asked Andrew.

"No; he is still going on; but he doesn't appear to do much. I think
the family is poor. They've sold their handsome house, and are
living in a much smaller one. I heard father say that Mr. Howland
had received an extension from his creditors, but that he was too
much crippled to be able to go through, and would, in the end, break
down entirely."

There was another pause, and then Andrew changed the subject by
asking the young man something about himself, and led on the
conversation, from step to step, until he got him to mention the
fact that he had a sister named Emily.

"Is she older than yourself?" inquired Andrew.

"Oh, yes. Some four years older," was replied.

"Married, of course," said Andrew.

The very effort he made to say this with seeming unconcern gave so
unnatural an expression to his tone of voice, that young Winters
looked at him with momentary surprise.

"No, she is not married," he answered.

"She's old enough," said Andrew, speaking now in a tone of more real
indifference.

"Yes; but she'll probably die an old maid. She's had two or three
good offers; but no one appears just to suit her fancy. Father was
very angry about her rejecting a young man some two or three years
ago, who afterwards disgraced himself, and broke the heart of a
young creature who had been weak enough to marry him."

"Then I should say that your sister was a sensible girl," remarked
Andrew, in a cheerful voice.

"Yes, she is a sensible girl; and, what is more, a good girl. Ah,
me! I wish I were half as sensible and half as good."

With what a free motion did the heart of Andrew beat after receiving
this intelligence!

"Is Mary Howland married?" he asked. He knew that she was, for he
had seen the fact noticed in a newspaper.

"Yes; she married a Mr. Markland."

"Who is he?"

"I don't know much about, him. He's a teller