s
nether integuments, which were ventilated at each knee, indicating a
most praiseworthy regard to the laws of health. He was sitting in a
chair pitched back against the wall, with his feet resting on another,
and a short Dutch pipe in his mouth, from which volumes of smoke were
pouring.

Ida thought she had never seen before so disgusting a man. She continued
to gaze at him, half in astonishment, half in terror, till the object of
her attention exclaimed,--

"Well, little girl, what you're looking at? Hain't you never seen a
gentleman before?"

Ida clung the closer to her companion, who, she was surprised to find,
did not resent the man's impertinence.

"Well, Dick, how've you got along since I've been gone?" asked Mrs.
Hardwick, to Ida's unbounded astonishment.

"Oh, so so."

"Have you felt lonely any?"

"I've had good company."

"Who's been here?"

Dick pointed significantly to a jug, which stood beside his chair.

"So you've brought the gal. How did you get hold of her?"

There was something in these questions which terrified Ida. It seemed to
indicate a degree of complicity between these two, which boded no good
to her.

"I'll tell you the particulars by and by," said the nurse, looking
significantly at the child's expressive face.

At the same time she began to take off her bonnet.

"You ain't going to stop, are you?" whispered Ida.

"Ain't going to stop!" repeated the man called Dick. "Why shouldn't she?
Ain't she at home?"

"At home!" echoed Ida, apprehensively, opening wide her eyes in
astonishment.

"Yes, ask her."

Ida looked, inquiringly, at Mrs. Hardwick.

"You might as well take off your things," said the latter, grimly. "We
ain't going any farther to-day."

"And where's the lady you said you were going to see?" asked the child,
bewildered.

"The one that was interested in you?"

"Yes."

"Well, I'm the one."

"You!"

"Yes."

"I don't want to stay here," said Ida, becoming frightened.

"Well, what are you going to do about it?" asked the woman, mockingly.

"Will you take me back early to-morrow?"

"No, I don't intend to take you back at all," said the nurse, coolly.

Ida seemed stupefied with astonishment and terror at first. Then,
actuated by a sudden impulse, she ran to the door, and had got it open
when the nurse sprang forward, and seizing her by the arm, dragged her
rudely back.

"Where are you going in such a hurry?" she demanded, roughly.

"Back to fathe