“Yes, sir. They’ve done the fair thing, or the girl has, for she is boss and all hands. Her mother don’t amount to shucks! They’ve sold their diamonds and paid debts, and sold their horses and carriage, and, Lord Harry, who do you s’pose has bought ’em, the horses and carriage, I mean: Godfrey Sheldon! Yes, sir! Godfrey Sheldon! Rides round town with his girls, big as life; and, if you’ll b’lieve it, has got the Grey coachman, too, and his clothes! Think of it! I stripped Dave quicker than wink! It was bad enough to have Tom Grey in livery, but Godfrey Sheldon! Lord Harry! What a farce! I wonder he didn’t buy the diamonds and have his wife and girls flaunt ’em morning, noon and night as they would! They don’t know any better! Why, your mother won’t wear hers except it’s something swell like our party! I hear their house is sold, or going to be, and they’ll have to leave, and I’ll tell you what I’ve thought of doing as a kind of recompense for what the Grey girl did for us. I hain’t forgot it. No, sir! I didn’t send that bellus thing, you made such a row, and now how would it do to offer them, rent free, the house in White’s Row where they used to live? It is empty and has been for quite a spell. I’d paper some of the rooms. You always have to with new tenants!” “I think it would be an insult!” Herbert answered hotly, expressing himself so fully on the subject that his father gave up his magnanimous intentions with regard to the tenement in White’s Row. Herbert was thinking of this and what a change it would be for the family when Louie came in, looking so hollow-eyed and worn that he could scarcely suppress a cry of dismay as he arose to meet her. “Louie! Louie! Poor little Louie!” he said, and his chin quivered, while Louie broke down entirely and cried for a moment as Herbert had never seen any one cry before. Then she brushed her tears away, and, smiling up at him, said, “I did not mean to give way like this, but the sight of you brought the old happy times back, before I knew what sorrow was; and father is bad this morning, and mother, too, and everything is so changed; but I am glad to see you. I knew you would come.” She tried to seem natural and asked him of his trip, and how soon he was going back to college, and told how kind everybody was to her, from Nancy Sharp, who, now that all their old servants had gone and they had only a young girl, was their mainstay in the kitchen. The house was sold at last she said, to a stranger, whose name she didn’t know. “It is very curious. Don’t know his name! How can that he?” Herbert asked, and Louie replied: “No one would buy it, the price was so high, till Mr. Blake bought it and paid the money down, and then in a few days told us he had sold it to some one who does not care to occupy it at present, and said we could stay here rent free as long as we like. Mr. Blake will not tell me who it is—says he is not at liberty to do so. Who do you suppose it can be? I wish I knew.”