thrill of disgust in the midst of her excitement and pity. She was of
a superior sort to the down-stairs woman, and she often told her
brother she could not get used to folks using such language.

Poor Carroll was looking dimly at his watch, and Allbright at once
divined that he could not distinguish the time without his
eye-glasses. He therefore leaned over him--his own spectacles were on
his nose--and told him the time.

"It's almost seventeen minutes past twelve, Mr. Carroll," he said.

Carroll made a movement to rise, then subsided with a groan. "Where
am I?" he inquired, feebly, with a bewildered stare around the
strange room. Directly opposite him hung a large crayon portrait of
Allbright's father, a handsome man with a reverend beard like a
prophet, and his eyes became riveted upon that.

"You are in my house, Mr. Carroll," said Allbright, with a tender,
caressing motion of his hand towards him, like a woman.

"You had a fall on the ice, Mr. Carroll," said the physician, in a
tone of soothing explanation, "but you will soon be as good as new."

"How far up-town?" inquired Carroll, still gazing at the portrait,
which had an odd hardness of outline, and appeared almost as if
carved out of wood.

"You are at One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street," replied Allbright.
"You are at my house, Mr. Carroll. You fell right out here, and I had
you carried in here."

Carroll tried again to rise, and made a despairing gasp. "Oh, my
God!" he said. "I have lost the last train out. There isn't time to
get down to the ferry, and there is that poor child all alone there,
and she won't know--"

"You can send a telegram," suggested the doctor. "Now, Mr. Carroll,
don't get excited."

"She will be all right," said Allbright.

"What is it?" asked the down-stairs woman, coming to the door.

"His daughter is all alone in the house, I guess, and he's worried
about her," explained Allbright.

"There ain't nothin' goin' to eat her, if she is, is there?" inquired
the down-stairs woman.

"I'll run with a telegram," said Allbright, eagerly, to the doctor.

But at that moment Carroll lapsed into unconsciousness. The
excitement had been too much for him. He lay as if asleep.

"Where does he live?" asked the doctor, of Allbright.

"I don't know exactly. Somewhere out on the Pennsylvania Railroad."

"You don't know?" repeated the doctor, with a faint accent of
surprise.

Allbright shook his head.

"You were book-keeper in hi