in."

"And her daughter is sick?"

"Troth she is; there's no lie in that; she's got the consoomption, and
she's not long for this world," replied the landlord, moving towards
the door of the house, again to complete the work of desolation he had
begun.

[Illustration: THE CRUEL LANDLORD. Page 103.]

"Stop, sir!" said Fanny, in tones so imperative that the man could not
help obeying her.

"What would I stop for?" asked Mr. O'Shane, rather vacantly.

"You shall not do this cruel thing."

"The saints know how it breaks me heart to do it, but I can't help it."

"Now you put all these things back into the house just as you found
them."

"Faix, I'd like to do it, miss," said the man, taking off his hat and
rubbing his tangled hair.

"You must do it."

"And not git me rint?"

"You shall have your money--every cent of it. Put the furniture back,
and you shall have your due just as soon as you have done it," said
Fanny, as haughtily as though she had been a millionaire.

Mr. O'Shane looked at her, and seemed to be petrified with
astonishment. The deed he was doing, harsh and cruel as it was, he
regarded as a work of necessity. Though he owned the house occupied by
Mrs. Kent, and another in which he lived himself with two other
families, both of them were mortgaged for half their value, and he was
obliged to pay interest on the money he owed for them. He certainly
could not afford to lose his rent, to which he was justly entitled. He
had indulged his tenant for a year, and nothing but the apparent
hopelessness of obtaining what was due had tempted him to this cruel
proceeding. Nothing but starvation in his own family could justify a
landlord in turning a mother with a dying child out of the house. He
looked at Fanny with astonishment when she promised to pay him, but he
was sceptical.

"Why don't you put back the furniture?" demanded Fanny, impatiently.

"It's meself that would be glad to do that same," replied he. "Would
you let me see the color of your money, miss?"

"Put the things back, and you shall have your money as soon as you have
done it," added Fanny, moving down the street. "I will be back in a few
moments."

The landlord looked at her, as she walked away. He was in doubt, but
there was something about the girl so different from what he had been
accustomed to see in young ladies of her age, that he was strongly
impressed by her words. Fanny sat down on a rock in the shade of a lone
tree. Mr. O'