"Well, I can only tell you what he said," returned Livingston Palmer.
"Will you give me his address, so that I can write to him?"
"Why, haven't you his address? I am sure he wrote to you."
"I never got the letter." And then Mrs. Talbot's face flushed, as she remembered about the letter her husband had destroyed. Had she been deceived in the matter, after all?
"Then I will write the address down for you," said Palmer, and did so.
A long talk followed, and the young man told Mrs. Talbot all he knew about Robert, and also mentioned Dick Marden, but not in such a way that the lady suspected the allowance Robert received came from the miner.
Palmer frankly admitted that he was without means of any sort.
"If I were in Chicago, this would not matter so much," he added. "But in Granville I know nobody but you and the members of our company, or rather the company to which I belonged. I was discharged, and Dixon refuses to even give me my carfare back to the city."
"I shall be pleased to give you what you need," replied Mrs. Talbot. "I am overjoyed to learn that Robert is well. I am going to pay Chicago a visit soon, and then if he will not come to me I will go to him."
"He will come to you fast enough, madam. It is only his step-father whom he dreads."