soon--say to-morrow
evening."

"I will come."

"What a gentlemanly fellow your friend is!" said Ferguson.

"What is his name, Harry?" asked Mr. Anderson.

"Oscar Vincent. His father is an editor in Boston."

"What! the son of John Vincent?" said Mr. Anderson, surprised.

"Yes, sir; do you know his father?"

"Only by reputation. He is a man of great ability."

"Oscar is a smart fellow, too, but not a hard student."

"I shall be glad to have you bring him round to the house some
evening, Harry. I shall be glad to become better acquainted with
him."

"Thank you, sir. I will give him the invitation."

It is very possible that Harry rose in the estimation of his
employer, from his intimacy with the son of a man who stood so high
in his own profession. At all events, Harry found himself from this
time treated with greater respect and consideration than before, and
Mr. Anderson often called upon him to write paragraphs upon local
matters, so that his position might be regarded except as to pay, as
that of an assistant editor.

CHAPTER XXII.

MISS DEBORAH'S EYES ARE OPENED.

Aunt Deborah felt that she had done a good stroke of business. She
had lent Ferdinand four hundred and fifty dollars, and received in
return a note for five hundred and fifty, secured by a diamond ring
worth even more. She plumed herself on her shrewdness, though at
times she felt a little twinge at the idea of the exorbitant interest
which she had exacted from so near a relative.

"But he said the money was worth that to him," she said to herself in
extenuation, "and he's goin' to get two thousand dollars a year. I
didn't want to lend the money, I'd rather have had it in the savings
bank, but I did it to obleege him."

By such casuistry Aunt Deborah quieted her conscience, and carefully
put the ring away among her bonds and mortgages.

"Who'd think a little ring like that should be worth so much?" she
said to herself. "It's clear waste of money. But then Ferdinand
didn't buy it. It was give to him, and a very foolish gift it was
too. Railly, it makes me nervous to have it to take care of. It's
so little it might get lost easy."

Aunt Deborah plumed herself upon her shrewdness. It was not easy to
get the advantage of her in a bargain, and yet she had accepted the
ring as security for a considerable loan without once questioning its
genuineness. She relied implicitly upon her nephew's assurance of
its genuinenes