"I feel so tired," said Althea, at this point. "Can I go to bed?"
"Certainly, my dear child. You can go at once."
In twenty minutes the little girl was in a sound sleep. Dan was not sorry, for he wanted to tell his mother about the days adventures, and he could do so more freely without any one to listen.
"So, mother," he concluded, "we are going to turn over a new leaf. We can't go back to our old style of living just yet, but we can get out of this tenement-house, and live in a respectable neighborhood."
"God has been good to us, Dan. We ought to feel grateful to Him."
"I know it, mother, but somehow I don't think of that as quick as you. Who do you think I saw in the supper-room at the Fifth Avenue? Who but Tom Carver. He was wonderfully puzzled to know how I happened to be there. He told the party he was with that I was a common newsboy."
"He is a very mean boy," said Mrs. Mordaunt, indignantly. "After being so intimate with you too."
"Never mind, mother. He can't do me any harm, and I don't care for his friendship. The time may come when I can meet him on even terms."
"You can now, Dan."