"It is as I expected, uncle; but how did you discover it? Did he say so?"
"No, my dear, it came when he paused before a woman who was selling flowers. He put his hands into his pockets, and was, I think, more perplexed than distressed. 'Now this is too bad,' he remarked, and I, divining, paid the woman for the flowers he selected. It is wonderful to me how, circumstanced as he is, he managed to make his way home."
"Providence directed him, and protected him," said Nansie, devoutly, "and will surely smooth the path before us."
"With all my heart I hope so," responded Mr. Loveday; "meanwhile, until the better fortune smiles upon us, we must work all the harder, and bring our best courage to bear upon the present."
Their conversation was interrupted by a gentle tapping at the door, and, opening it, they saw Timothy Chance, who had a covered basket on his arm which he laid upon the floor, and then respectfully greeted Mr. Loveday and Nansie, who, however, would not be content with this, but shook hands heartily with him.
A word of explanation as to Timothy's movements will here be useful.
They had not seen him since within a fortnight of the fire which had plunged them so low. When he was convinced that there was no present hope of Mr. Loveday being able to re-establish his business, he had looked out for a situation in the immediate neighborhood, in order that he might be near the friends to whom he was so devotedly attached. But his efforts were not successful; no situation presented itself which he could accept, and as he was driven by necessity, which knows no law, he was compelled to avail himself of an engagement in the country some fifteen miles away, which offered itself in the nick of time. What eventually transpired will be best related in his own words.
"You thought I'd forgotten you, sir," he said to Mr. Loveday.
"No, my lad, I did not think that. My thought was that you had not been fortunate, and that you kept away out of consideration for us."
"Thank you, sir. You have a happy way of saying things. True, too, because I was not very fortunate at first; but there has been a turn in the wheel."