e
country. You'll not think I'm quarrelling with you, Mrs Roper."

"It's them Lupexes as have done it," said Mrs Roper, in her deep
distress.

"No, indeed, Mrs Roper, nobody has done it."

"Yes, it is; and I'm not going to blame you, Mr Eames. They've made
the house unfit for any decent young gentleman like you. I've been
feeling that all along; but it's hard upon a lone woman like me,
isn't it, Mr Eames?"

"But, Mrs Roper, the Lupexes have had nothing to do with my going."

"Oh, yes, they have; I understand it all. But what could I do, Mr
Eames? I've been giving them warning every week for the last six
months; but the more I give them warning, the more they won't go.
Unless I were to send for a policeman, and have a row in the house--"

"But I haven't complained of the Lupexes, Mrs Roper."

"You wouldn't be quitting without any reason, Mr Eames. You are not
going to be married in earnest, are you, Mr Eames?"

"Not that I know of."

"You may tell me; you may, indeed. I won't say a word,--not to
anybody. It hasn't been my fault about Amelia. It hasn't really."

"Who says there's been any fault?"

"I can see, Mr Eames. Of course it didn't do for me to interfere. And
if you had liked her, I will say I believe she'd have made as good
a wife as any young man ever took; and she can make a few pounds go
farther than most girls. You can understand a mother's feelings; and
if there was to be anything, I couldn't spoil it; could I, now?"

"But there isn't to be anything."

"So I've told her for months past. I'm not going to say anything to
blame you; but young men ought to be very particular; indeed they
ought." Johnny did not choose to hint to the disconsolate mother that
it also behoved young women to be very particular, but he thought it.
"I've wished many a time, Mr Eames, that she had never come here;
indeed I have. But what's a mother to do? I couldn't put her outside
the door." Then Mrs Roper raised her apron up to her eyes, and began
to sob.

"I'm very sorry if I've made any mischief," said Johnny.

"It hasn't been your fault," continued the poor woman, from whom, as
her tears became uncontrollable, her true feelings forced themselves
and the real outpouring of her feminine nature. "Nor it hasn't been
my fault. But I knew what it would come to when I saw how she was
going on; and I told her so. I knew you wouldn't put up with the
likes of her."

"Indeed, Mrs Roper, I've always had a great regard for h