am."

"I won't compromise you," he ended, contemptuously. "Tell Robertson I
mean to do it. If he has anything to say he can say it in a letter."
Then he kissed her perfunctorily and said, "Goo'-by--goo'-by," and took
the night train for Mercer.

He lost no time when he got back to Old Chester in putting his plan
through. The very next afternoon, knowing that Johnny would be at Doctor
Lavendar's Collect Class, he called on Miss Lydia. Miss Sampson's little
house was more comfortable than it used to be; the quarterly check which
came from "some one" patched up leaky roofs, and bought a new carpet,
and did one or two other things; but it did not procure any luxuries,
either for Johnny or for herself, and it never made Miss Lydia look like
anything but a small, bedraggled bird; her black frizette still got
crooked and dipped over one soft blue eye, and she was generally
shabby--except on the rare occasions when she wore the blue silk--and
her parlor always looked as if a wind had blown through it. "I wouldn't
_touch_ their money for myself!" she used to think, and saved every cent
to give to Johnny when he grew up.

Into her helter-skelter house came, on this Saturday afternoon, her
landlord. He had knocked on her front door with the gold head of his
cane, and when she opened it he had said, "How do? How do?" and walked
ahead of her into her little parlor. It was so little and he was so big
that he seemed to fill the room.

Miss Lydia said, in a fluttered voice, "How do you do?"

"Miss Sampson," he said--he had seated himself in a chair that creaked
under his ruddy bulk and he put both hands on the top of his cane; his
black eyes were friendly and amused--"I've had it in mind for some time
to have a little talk with you."

"Yes, sir," said Miss Lydia.

"I need not go back to--to a painful experience that we both remember."

Miss Lydia put her head on one side in a puzzled way, as if her memory
had failed her.

"You will know that I appreciated your attitude at that time. I
appreciated it deeply."

Miss Lydia rolled her handkerchief into a wabbly lamplighter; she seemed
to have nothing to say.

"I have come here now, not merely to tell you this, but to add that I
intend to relieve you of the care of--ah, the little boy."

Miss Lydia was silent.

"There are things I should like to give him. He says he wants a pony.
And I mean to educate him. It would seem strange to do this as an
outsider; it might cause--ah