l heavier, and at this
moment an omnibus came up. He hailed it, saying to himself that he
would think the matter over and come back on the morrow. The first part
of his purpose he fulfilled; but to Milton Street he never returned.

As soon as he had left the house, Mrs. Ledward bounced into the room
where Ida stood.

"You little idjot!" she exclaimed. "What do you mean by refusing a
offer like that!--Why, the gentleman's your own father."

"My father!" repeated Ida, in scornful astonishment. "My father died
when I was a baby. Mother's told me so often."

"If you believe all your mother told you,--Well, well, you have been a
little wooden-head. What made you behave like that to him?--Where does
he live, eh?"

"I don't know."

"You do know. Why, I heard him say you'd been to see him. And what are
you going to do, I'd like to know? You don't expect me to keep you, I
s'pose. Tell me at once where the gentleman lives, and let me take you
there. The idea of your turning against your own father!"

"He's _not_ my father!" cried Ida passionately. "My father is dead; and
now mother's dead, and I'm alone." She turned and went from the room,
weeping bitterly.

CHAPTER VI

AN ADVERTISEMENT

In a morning newspaper of March 187--, that is to chapter, appeared a
singular advertisement.

"WANTED, human companionship. A young man of four-and-twenty wishes to
find a congenial associate of about his own age. He is a student of
ancient and modern literatures, a free-thinker in religion, a lover of
art in all its forms, a hater of conventionalism. Would like to
correspond in the first instance. Address O. W., City News Rooms, W.C."

An advertisement which, naturally, might mean much or little, might be
the outcome of an idle whim, or the despairing cry of a hungry heart.
It could not be expected to elicit many replies; and brought indeed but
one.

Behind the counter of a chemist's shop in Oxford Street there served,
day after day, a young assistant much observed of female customers. The
young man was handsome, and not with that vulgar handsomeness which is
fairly common among the better kind of shop-walkers and
counter-keepers. He had rather long black hair, which arranged itself
in silky ripples about a face of perfectly clear, though rather dark,
complexion. When he smiled, as he frequently did, the effect was very
pleasant. He spoke, too, with that musical intonation which is always
more or less suggestive of mus