business tour, and wants a young man to accompany
him." I didn't dream of asking what the business was, but sped, as fast
as my trembling limbs would carry me, to the address he had mentioned. I
asked for Mr Freeman Sterling, and found him. He was a photographer,
and his business at present was to go about getting orders for the
reproducing of old portraits. A good-natured young fellow. He said he
liked the look of me, and on the spot engaged me to assist him in a
house-to-house visitation. He would pay for my board and lodging, and
give me a commission on all the orders I obtained. Forthwith I sat down
to a "square meal," and ate--my conscience, how I ate!'

'You were not eminently successful in that pursuit, I think?' said
Jasper.

'I don't think I got half-a-dozen orders. Yet that good Samaritan
supported me for five or six weeks, whilst we travelled from Troy to
Boston. It couldn't go on; I was ashamed of myself; at last I told
him that we must part. Upon my word, I believe he would have paid my
expenses for another month; why, I can't understand. But he had a vast
respect for me because I had written in newspapers, and I do seriously
think that he didn't like to tell me I was a useless fellow. We parted
on the very best of terms in Boston.'

'And you again had recourse to pea-nuts?' asked Dora.

'Well, no. In the meantime I had written to someone in England, begging
the loan of just enough money to enable me to get home. The money came a
day after I had seen Sterling off by train.'

An hour and a half quickly passed, and Jasper, who wished to have a few
minutes of Marian's company before it was time for her to go, cast a
significant glance at his sisters. Dora said innocently:

'You wished me to tell you when it was half-past nine, Marian.'

And Marian rose. This was a signal Whelpdale could not disregard.
Immediately he made ready for his own departure, and in less than five
minutes was gone, his face at the last moment expressing blended delight
and pain.

'Too good of you to have asked me to come,' he said with gratitude to
Jasper, who went to the door with him. 'You are a happy man, by Jove! A
happy man!'

When Jasper returned to the room his sisters had vanished. Marian
stood by the fire. He drew near to her, took her hands, and repeated
laughingly Whelpdale's last words.

'Is it true?' she asked.

'Tolerably true, I think.'

'Then I am as happy as you are.'

He released her hands, and moved