“How can he recommend me after discharging me for theft?”
“He’ll think this will be a lesson to you. Shall I ask him?”
“No, thank you. I don’t intend to leave the city at present.”
“I’m afraid that chap will make trouble for me yet,” muttered John to himself, as Gilbert walked away with the little girl; “but he can’t prove anything. I guess me and cousin Simon will be more than a match for him.”
CHAPTER XXIV.
EMMA’S FATHER.
Gilbert kept on his way with the little girl. After a short walk, she paused in front of a miserable tenement house on Pearl Street.
“This is where we live,” she said; “will you go upstairs, sir?”
“If you think I shall not be intruding on your father,” said Gilbert, with instinctive delicacy.
“He will be glad to see a kind face,” said Emma, simply.
“Then if you will lead the way, I will follow,” said our hero.