e sneered.

"Kitty McKenzie cannot hold a candle to Ruth Richards. Dress her as Kitty
rigs herself out and all New York would be raving about her," the young
man replied.

"Louis Hamblin, I am all out of patience with you! Kitty would feel
highly complimented with your opinion of her charms," cried his aunt,
angrily. "But let me tell you," she added, resolutely, "I shall not
countenance any fooling with that young lady; you have shown her very
marked attention, and she has a right to expect that you have serious
intentions. You know that I should be only too glad to have you marry
Kitty; she is a sweet girl, to say nothing about her beauty, while the
McKenzies are all that could be desired, both as to wealth and position;
and the day that Kitty becomes your wife I will match her dowry as a
wedding-gift to you."

"Thank you; I know that you are all that is kind and good in your plans
for me, Aunt Margie," Louis responded, in a conciliatory tone, "and you
need not fear that I am rashly going to throw Kitty over; we are the best
of friends, although not acknowledged lovers. I cannot quite make up my
mind to propose, for, really, I do not feel like tying myself down just
yet."

"It would be a good thing for you--you have sown wild oats enough, Louis,
and it is time that you began to think of settling down in life. If you
please me you know that a brilliant future awaits you, for you are my
only heir," Mrs. Montague concluded, as she searched his face earnestly.

"My dear Aunt Margie, you well know there is nothing I like to do better
than to please you," was the gallant response, and Mrs. Montague believed
him, and smoothed her ruffled plumage.

"Nevertheless," Mr. Louis Hamblin remarked later, while smoking his cigar
by himself, "I shall try to see more of that pretty seamstress, without
regard to the McKenzie expectations. Jove! what eyes she has! and her low
'thank you,' as I let her in, had the most musical sound I've heard in
many a day. Stay," he added, with a start, "now I think of it, she must
be the same girl to whom those proud upstarts gave the cut direct in
Macy's the other day. I thought her face was familiar, and didn't she
pull herself together gloriously after it. There's a romance connected
with her, I'll bet. She must have been in society, or she could not have
known them well enough to salute them as she did. Really, Miss Ruth
Richards grows more and more interesting to me."

CHAPTER XI.