"A knife cuts love, Meg."
"Not if you get a penny for it," asserted Meg wisely. "Bliggings told me; let me get a knife for the man, mumsey."
"Very well, dear," said Kitty smiling; "the man will then know my little daughter has a kind heart."
"Meg is a very good girl," asserted that small personage gravely; and, climbing down off her mother's knee, she began to play with the bricks, while Kitty went on with her correspondence.
The next letter evidently did not give Kitty much satisfaction, judging by the frown on her face. She had written to Hiram J. Fenton asking for some money, and he had curtly refused to give her any more. She tore up the letter, threw it into the waste-paper basket, and smiled sardonically.
"You won't, won't you?" she muttered angrily. "Very well, my friend, there are plenty of others to give me money if you won't."
At this moment there came a ring at the door, and shortly after the servant entered with a card. Kitty took it carelessly, and then started.
"Mrs. Malton," she muttered, in a puzzled tone. "Evan Malton's wife! what does she want, I wonder? I thought I was too wicked for virtue to call on me--it appears I'm not."
She glanced at the card again, then made up her mind.
"Show the lady in," she said calmly; and, when the servant disappeared, she called Meg. "Mumsey's sweetheart must go away for a few minutes."