"Come, I consider that far from a compliment," said the old lady. "You really thought as badly of me as that?"
"I know you better now," said Ambrose, gratefully.
"It is well you do. You have no idea how intimate your mother and I used to be. She is five years my junior, I think, so that I regarded her as a younger sister. It is many years since we met. And how is she looking?"
"She shows the effects of bad health, but I don't think she looks older than her years."
"We have both changed greatly, no doubt. It is to be expected. But you can tell her that I have not forgotten the favorite companion of my school days."
"I will do so, for I know it will warm her heart and brighten her up."
"When we were girls together our worldly circumstances did not greatly differ. But I married, and my husband was very successful in business."
"While she married and lost all she had."
"It is often so. It might have been the other way. Your mother might have been rich, and I poor; but I don't think she would have been spoiled by prosperity any more than I have been. Now tell me how you are situated."
"I am a clerk, earning twelve dollars a week."