'I did not,' said Mrs. Jenkins. 'I only told her some one had come to New York that I wanted to see, and she never asked another question. She is a perfect lady, is Mrs. Griswold, and respects everybody's confidence. She will ask me nothing when I get back; and when you meet her, I am sure you need not be afraid she will know that the famous Miss Montressor is her nurse's sister.' There was just the slightest tone of hurt feeling in Mrs. Jenkins's kindly voice, and Miss Montressor, who was as kindly as herself at bottom--only a little overlaid by the affectation of her profession and her associations--sympathetically perceived it. 'The gentleman talked nonsense, Bess,' she said, bestowing on her sister a hearty hug, to which the other responded. 'Here we are now, and here we may not be long uninterrupted, so let us have a talk while we may. What's Jenkins about?' 'I don't know, darling. No harm, but some business of a private nature, which will keep him away for some time--it's only a commission agency, but I don't know in what.' Mrs. Jenkins was the most loyal of wives, and even to her beloved sister, the pride and delight of her life, would not have betrayed her husband's confidence, and Miss Montressor was in reality profoundly indifferent to the answer to the question which she had just asked. She did not care one straw where Jenkins was, provided he was not in New York, or what he was doing, provided his occupation was not of a nature to expose her to any risk of contact with him. Satisfied on this point, she was quite ready to respond to her sister's affectionate inquisitiveness respecting herself and her concerns, and the two plunged immediately into an animated and confidential conversation, which brought out the best sides of the characters of both. Miss Montressor gave her sister a tolerably correct and exceedingly pleasant description of her career during the years which had parted them--years which had been very prosperous on the whole for the friendless young actress, and not unmarked by acts of generosity towards her sister, whose lot had been very different. That Mrs. Jenkins was so poor as she had been when we first made her acquaintance in Bleeker-street was not Miss Montressor's fault; she had frequently assisted her sister and her good-for-nothing husband out of her, at first, very moderate means; but when Bess saw that Jenkins's good-for-nothingness was an established fact, her honesty of purpose and truthfulness of mind made her make a resolution to accept no more assistance from Clara. 'I don't mind working hard,' was her mental comment on the situation, 'that he may have money to waste--I am his wife; but Clara shall not do it. I will never touch a shilling of her earnings more;' and she had written to Clara asking her to abstain from sending them money.