she answered.
"I come from your mother."
"From my mother? Robert, do you hear that?" said the poor woman, in a
voice of gladness. "Here is a messenger from my mother. Didn't I tell
you there was good luck in store for us?"
Mr. Morgan did not answer. He waited anxiously to hear what Frank had to
communicate.
"Your mother sends you her love, and fifty dollars," continued Frank.
"She hopes to call soon herself."
"Fifty dollars!" exclaimed Ellen Morgan, in delight. "It is a fortune."
"Thank Heaven!" ejaculated her husband, in great relief.
"A month hence you may expect a similar sum," said Frank. "I suppose I
shall bring it. Shall I find you here?"
Ellen Morgan looked at her husband.
"No," said he. "Let us get out of this neighborhood as soon as possible.
Can't you find a respectable place to-day?"
"Yes," said his wife. "I shall be glad to move. I saw some neat rooms on
West Twentieth street on Monday. They will cost us but little more, and
will suit us better."
"I will send my mother my new address," she said to Frank.
"Then you may send it under cover to me, and I will see that she gets it
privately," said Frank, who had received instructions to that effect
from Mrs. Graham.
When Frank had left the room the little household seemed quite
transformed. Hope had entered, and all looked more cheerful.
"We are provided for, for two months, Robert," said his wife. "Is not
that a piece of good luck?"
"Yes, indeed it is," he answered heartily. "Before that time I can get
to work again, and with health and employment I shall not need to ask
favors of any one."
"I wish father were as forgiving as mother," said Ellen Morgan.
"Your father is a hard man. He will never forgive you for marrying a
poor man. He would punish you by starvation."
"He is very proud," said Mrs. Morgan. "I was an only daughter, you know,
and he had set his heart upon my making a brilliant marriage."
"As you might have done."
"As I did not care to do. I preferred to make a happy marriage with the
man of my choice."
"You are a good wife, Ellen."
"I hope you will always find me so, Robert."
"I should have sunk utterly if you had been like some women."
In the afternoon Mrs. Morgan went out, taking one of her children with
her. She went to the rooms on West Twentieth street, and, finding them
still vacant, secured them, paying a month's rent in advance, as her
mother's timely gift enabled her to do. Before the n
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