ent home to his supper he said: "Mother, I want you to buy a
new dress for yourself and one for Edith."

"There are a good many things we would like, Mark, but you must remember
that we are not rich."

"Perhaps not, but I think you can afford new dresses. How much would
they cost?"

"The material will cost from ten to twenty dollars. I could make them up
myself."

"All right, mother. Here are twenty dollars."

"But, Mark, can you spare that amount? Our rent comes due next week."

"It is the last rent we shall pay here. We will move to better
quarters."

"Really, Mark, I am afraid you are forgetting your prudence."

"That is because you don't know how rich I am mother. I have a thousand
dollars on deposit with my banker, or rather nine hundred and fifty, for
I drew fifty dollars this morning."

Mrs. Mason surveyed her son with alarm. A terrible suspicion entered her
mind. Was he becoming mentally unbalanced? Mark understood her thoughts
and was amused.

"Don't think I am crazy, mother," he said. "The fact is, Mr. Rockwell
made me a present of a thousand dollars this morning."

"Is this really true? You are not joking?"

"I was never more serious in my life. He told me that I had saved his
life, and he didn't think he was overpaying me in giving me a thousand
dollars."

"He was right, but I was afraid few men would have been so generous. So
I really have a rich son."

"And I shall have a rich mother when she gets her share of her father's
estate."

"Oh, by the way, there is a letter for you. Edith, get Mark's letter."

"I guess it's from a girl, Mark," said his sister, as she handed the
messenger boy a dainty epistle in a square envelope.

Mark opened it and read it aloud.

Miss Maud Gilbert asks the favor of Mr. Mark Mason's company at her
residence on the evening of Thursday, Sept. 23d.

"An invitation to a party," said Mark flushing with pleasure.

"Where, Mark?"

"At the house of Miss Maud Gilbert."

"Shall you go?"

"Yes, I can go now, for I shall have a nice suit."

"You are getting to be fashionable, Mark. Who knows but you will be
counted among the Four Hundred some time?"

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE TWO SISTERS MEET.

Solon Talbot had two strong desires. One was to acquire wealth. The
other was to get into good society.

He had moved to the city of New York with the idea of helping himself in
both these particulars. He took a house on an up-town street at a
considerable rent