paid. I know not what to do.'

'Do!--why, d----n you, do as other w----s do; go and parade Broadway,
until you pick up a flat--ha, ha, ha!' and the ruffian laughed brutally.
After a pause, he added--

'Well, I've got an appointment tonight, at eleven o'clock; a little job
is to be done, that will fill my pocket with shiners. But don't you
expect to get a farthing of the money--no, d----n you, you must earn
your living as other prostitutes earn it. Good bye--I'm off.'

He departed, and Frank emerged from his hiding place. 'What a beastly
scoundrel that fellow is!' he thought, as he gazed with pity at the
weeping and wretched wife. He was about to address her with some words
of comfort, when a loud knocking was heard on the chamber door. Mrs.
Archer started, and whispered to Frank that it was the landlady, come
to demand her rent--she then in a louder tone, requested the person to
walk in.

A stout, vulgar looking woman entered the room and having violently shut
the door and placed her back to it, said--

'I've come, Missus, or Miss, or whatever you are, to see if so be you
can pay me my rent, as has now been due better nor four weeks, and you
can't deny it, either.'

'I am sorry to say, madam,' replied Mrs. Archer,'that I am still unable
to pay you. My husband has left me no money, and--'

'Then you will please to bundle out of this house as soon as possible,'
retorted the woman, fiercely. 'What am I to let my furnished rooms to a
lazy, good-for-nothing hussy like you, as is too proud to work and too
good to go out and look for company in the streets, and can't pay me, an
honest, hard-working woman, her rent! Am I to put up with--'

'Silence, woman!' interrupted Frank--'do not abuse this unfortunate
female in this manner! Have you no sympathy--no pity?'

'And who are _you_, sir?' demanded the virago, dreadfully enraged--'how
dare _you_ interfere, you dirty, ragged, vagabond? Come, tramp out of
this, both of you, this very instant, or I shall call in them as will
make you!'

Frank made no reply, but very composedly drew from his pocket a handful
of silver and gold; at the sight of the money, the landlady's eyes and
mouth opened in astonishment--and her manner, from being most
insufferably insolent, changed to the most abject servility.

'Oh, sir,' she said, simpering and curtsying--'I am sure I always had
the greatest respect for Mrs. Archer, and I hope that neither you nor
her will think hard of me for what