y have it at the post office.'

'They have not. Colonel Gainsborough was to have sent me his address,
when he knew himself what it would be, but he has never done so.'

'Is he living in the city, or out of it.'

'I have explained to you why I am unable to answer that question.'

'Why do you want to know, Pitt?' his mother imprudently asked.

'Because I have got to look them up, mother; and knowing whereabouts
they are would be rather a help, you see.'

'You have not got to look them up!' said his father gruffly. 'What
business is it of yours? If they were here, it would be all very well
for you to pay your respects to the colonel; it would be due; but as it
is, there is no obligation.'

'No obligation of civility. There is another, however.'

'What, then?'

'Of friendship, sir.'

'Nonsense. Friendship ought to keep you at home. There is no friendship
like that of a man's father and mother. Do you know what a piece of
time it would take for you to go to New York to look up a man who lives
you do not know where?--what a piece of your vacation?'

'More than I like to think of,' said Pitt; 'but it will have to be
done.'

'It will take you two days to get there, and two more days to get back,
merely for the journey; and how many do you want to spend in New York?'

'Must have two or three, at least. It will swallow up a week.'

'Out of your little vacation!' said his mother reproachfully. She was
angry and hurt, as near tears as she often came; but Mrs. Dallas was
not wont to show her discomfiture in that way.

'Yes, mother; I am very sorry.'

'Why do you care about seeing them?--care so much, I mean,' his father
inquired, with a keen side-glance at his son.

'I have made a promise, sir. I am bound to keep it.'

'What promise?' both parents demanded at once.

'To look after the daughter, in case of the father's death.'

'But he is not dead. He is well enough; as likely to live as I am.'

'How can I be sure of that? You have not heard from him for months, you
say.'

'I should have heard, if anything had happened to him.'

'That is not certain, either,' said Pitt, thinking that Esther's
applying to his father and mother in case of distress was more than
doubtful.

'How can you look after the daughter in the event of her father's
death? _You_ are not the person to do it,' said his mother.

'I am the person who have promised to do it,' said Pitt quietly. 'Never
mind, mother; you see I must go, and t