Joe, tremulous and eager.

His companion went away laughing.

"Who 's your young friend?" asked Hattie.

"A fellah from the South."

"Bring him over here."

Joe could hardly believe in his own good luck, and his head, which was
getting a bit weak, was near collapsing when his divinity asked him what
he 'd have? He began to protest, until she told the waiter with an air
of authority to make it a little "'skey." Then she asked him for a
cigarette, and began talking to him in a pleasant, soothing way between
puffs.

When the drinks came, she said to Thomas, "Now, old man, you 've been
awfully nice, but when you get your little drink, you run away like a
good little boy. You 're superfluous."

Thomas answered, "Well, I like that," but obediently gulped his whiskey
and withdrew, while Joe laughed until the master of ceremonies stood up
and looked sternly at him.

The concert had long been over and the room was less crowded when Thomas
sauntered back to the pair.

"Well, good-night," he said. "Guess you can find your way home, Mr.
Hamilton;" and he gave Joe a long wink.

"Goo'-night," said Joe, woozily, "I be a' ri'. Goo'-night."

"Make it another 'skey," was Hattie's farewell remark.

* * * * *

It was late the next morning when Joe got home. He had a headache and a
sense of triumph that not even his illness and his mother's reproof
could subdue.

He had promised Hattie to come often to the club.

X

A VISITOR FROM HOME

Mrs. Hamilton began to question very seriously whether she had done the
best thing in coming to New York as she saw her son staying away more
and more and growing always farther away from her and his sister. Had
she known how and where he spent his evenings, she would have had even
greater cause to question the wisdom of their trip. She knew that
although he worked he never had any money for the house, and she foresaw
the time when the little they had would no longer suffice for Kitty and
her. Realising this, she herself set out to find something to do.

It was a hard matter, for wherever she went seeking employment, it was
always for her and her daughter, for the more she saw of Mrs. Jones, the
less she thought it well to leave the girl under her influence. Mrs.
Hamilton was not a keen woman, but she had a mother's intuitions, and
she saw a subtle change in her daughter. At first the girl grew wistful
and then impatient and rebellious. She compl