"And does that seem to you a fitting subject for merriment?" demanded the outraged mother.
The miser cowed beneath her indignant glance, and muttering something unintelligible, slunk away.
"Curse her!" he muttered, in his quavering tones, "why can't I face her like a man? I never could. That was the way when—when she rejected me. But I shall have my revenge yet."
Strange to say, Peter's last suggestion produced an effect quite different from that which he anticipated and intended. Days passed, and Charlie did not come; but his mother feeling certain, she hardly knew why, that he had been inveigled on board some vessel, felt sure he would some day return.
"He will write to me as soon as he gets a chance," thought the mother, "and I shall soon see him again."
XIII.
CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE.
Small as was the remuneration which Mrs. Codman received for sewing, she hoped, by great economy, to get along with the money which she already had on hand. But troubles never come singly, and of this she was destined to feel the full significance.
One morning she made up a bundle of completed work, and proceeded with it to the ready-made clothing store of Messrs. Sharp & Keene, her employers. It was a trial to one reared as Mrs. Codman had been, to come into contact with men who did not think it necessary to hide their native coarseness from one who made shirts for them at twenty cents apiece.
On the present occasion she was kept waiting for some time, before her presence appeared to be noticed. At length, Sharp nodded to her from the desk.