"My stars! Do you know what time it is, young man?" demanded the
lodging-house keeper. "It's after ten o'clock."

Already Tunis Latham's hopes began to sink.

"Then--then she goes to work early?"

"Lemme tell you, them that works for Hoskin & Marl have to show up
by eight or they lose their jobs."

"And she will not be in until evening?" he repeated.

"'Bout seven. She gets her supper before she comes home. I don't
give meals."

"Where is this place she works at?" asked the captain of the
_Seamew_, with a suppressed sigh.

"Guess you are a stranger in town, aren't you?" said the curious
landlady. "I thought everybody knew Hoskin & Marl's. It's on Tremont
Street. The big department store."

"Oh! Miss Bostwick works there?"

"In the laces. You can't know her very well, young man."

"I come from her folks down on the Cape," he thought it his duty to
explain. "I've a message for her."

"On the Cape? My stars! I never knowed she had any country
relatives. Are they rich? They ain't died and left her a fortune,
have they?" were the eager questions.

"The ones I speak of are still alive," Tunis said gravely, backing
up the steps to the sidewalk. "Thank you, ma'am. I'll go to that
store and speak to her there. Thank you."

Before she could evolve another question, Tunis had escaped. He
walked smartly away, not only to outdistance the lodging-house
keeper's voice, but because he was confused and disappointed. Ida
May Bostwick could not work in a department store and in an eating
house as well. Of course not! And now that this point was an
established fact in his mind, he admitted that he had been utterly
foolish to imagine for a moment that he had already met her, that
she was the violet-eyed girl in whom he had taken an interest.

Right at the start he had known that a girl working in an eating
house like that was not the sort of person he could introduce to
Aunt Lucretia. And so why had he imagined that she would prove to be
the great-niece of Prudence Ball? It was ridiculous!

Of course, this Ida May came of good Cape stock. At least, on one
side of her family. The Honeys were as good as the Lathams or the
Balls.

Thus condemning his foolish fancies he strode downtown again. He
knew where Hoskin & Marl's was. He had been in the place. When he
reached the department store he marched straight in, meaning to have
an immediate interview with the girl at the lace counter.

CHAPTER VI

AN UNSATISFAC