"Sure, you've been callin' on my friend, Mrs. Rollins," she said.
"Is she a friend of yours?" asked Sylvester, looking at her curiously.
"Indeed she is, and she's a fine lady. But she's been very unfortunate. I would like to have helped her, but I am poor myself, and——"
"Won't you accept this?" said Sylvester, offering her a dollar as the easiest way of getting rid of her.
"Thank you, sir," said Mrs. Marlow, with a profound courtesy. "It's easy to see you're a kindhearted man."
"What a curious woman! I should hardly think Mrs. Rollins would have made choice of her as a friend!" soliloquized the young man as he pushed on to the street.
"I wonder what his name is and where he lives," speculated Mrs. Marlow. "He must be the young man that gave the Rollinses the purse and the basket of provisions. If I knew where he lived I'd go and see him often."
There is very little doubt that Mrs. Marlow would have kept her word, but unfortunately she had no clew to the residence of her new acquaintance.
When Rupert came downstairs, she put herself in his way.
"You had a call from a nice gentleman this morning," she said, insinuatingly.