n."

"Poor woman!" exclaimed Emily; "what does she do in such cases?"

"I can tell you, Emily, for I saw an instance of it to-day. When I went
in this morning, he was preparing to make a coal-fire in the grate,
notwithstanding the heat, which was becoming intense in the city."

"And Mrs. Sullivan?" said Emily.

"Was sitting on the lower stair, in the front entry, crying."

"Poor thing!" murmured Emily.

"She could do nothing with him," continued Gertrude, "and had given up
in despair."

"She ought to have a strong woman or a man to take care of him."

"That is what she dreads worse than anything. She says it would kill her
to see him unkindly treated, as he would be sure to be by a stranger;
and, besides, she shrinks from the idea of having anyone in the house to
whom she is unaccustomed. She is very neat and particular in all her
arrangements, has always done her work herself; and declares she would
sooner admit a wild beast into her family than an Irish girl."

"Her new house has not been a source of much pleasure to her yet, has
it?"

"Oh, no. She was saying to-day how strange it seemed when she had been
looking forward so long to the comfort of a new tenement, that, just as
she had moved in and got everything furnished to her mind, she should
have this great trial."

"It seems strange to me," said Emily, "that she did not sooner perceive
its approach. I noticed when I went with you the failure in the old
man's intellect."

"I had observed it for a long time," remarked Gertrude, "but never spoke
of it to her; and I do not think she was in the least aware of it, until
about their removal, when the breaking-up of old associations affected
his mind."

"Sad thing!" said Emily. "How old is he?"

"I believe he is very old; I remember Mrs. Sullivan's telling me some
time ago that he was near eighty."

"Is he so old as that? Then I am not surprised that these changes have
made him childish."

"Oh, no. Melancholy, as it is, we may come to the same if we live to his
age; and as he seems generally contented, I do not lament it so much on
his own account as Mrs. Sullivan's."

"Does it seem hard for her to bear up under it?"

"I think it would not be if she were well; but there is something the
matter with her, and I fear it is more serious than she allows, for she
looks very pale, and has had several alarming ill turns lately."

"Has she consulted a physician?"

"No; she doesn't wish for one, and says s