Following up this determination, twenty minutes later found him standing in front of the house. But he could not, without inquiring, obtain the desired information, and this he hardly liked to do, lest it should be reported to Rough and Ready, and so put him on his guard.
He stood undecided what to do; but chance favored him. While he was considering, he saw the newsboy himself come up the street and enter the house, with a loaf of bread under his arm. He was just returning from a bakery near by, and the bread was to form a part of the supper to which all three brought excellent appetites.
James Martin crouched back in a door-way, in order to escape observation, at the same time pulling his hat over his eyes. The precaution, however, proved unnecessary, for the newsboy never looked across the street, and was far enough from suspecting the danger that menaced the little household. He was thinking rather of the nice supper,—a little better than usual,—which was being prepared in honor of the holiday, and thinking how much more pleasantly they were situated than in the room at Leonard Street, on the other side of the city.
"It's all right!" muttered Martin to himself with satisfaction. "The boy told me the truth, and I don't mind the seventy-five cents, as long as I've found out where they live. They'll find I aint so easily fooled as I might be. A day or two'll tell the story."
He had learned all he wished to know, and walked back to Broadway, where it is unnecessary to follow him.
The next day Rose and Miss Manning were sitting together in the neat little room to which both had become attached. Miss Manning was sewing as usual. Rose was sitting on a stool at her feet, with her eyes fixed on a small reading-book.
"I think I know my lesson, Miss Manning," she said at last, raising her eyes.
"Very well, Rose, I am ready to hear you."
The seamstress laid down her work, and Rose standing by her side, read the lesson to her without a mistake.
"Didn't I say it well, Miss Manning?" she asked, proudly.