"Some time I'll buy you a new dress, Grace," said her brother, "a dress that you can wear with the cloak. I wish you had it by next Thursday evening."
"Why then, Paul?" asked his mother.
"Because I have promised to take Grace with me to see Miss Dearborn on that evening."
The pleasure excited by the gift was such that Mrs. Palmer was unusually jubilant, notwithstanding the loss of one of her customers. She did not seem wholly forsaken, and fortune appeared again to have smiled upon her.
Meanwhile, though Paul did not know it, trouble was preparing for him. He had two enemies—one his own brother, Stephen, already introduced; the other Luke Denton, whose designs he had frustrated in the car. Luke had not forgiven him for the leap which he was obliged to make from the moving train, and the bruises which he received in consequence.
"I'll be even with the young sneak—see if I don't," said Luke, vengefully, to Stephen, as they sat together in the room of the latter, smoking.
"Don't blame you a bit," said Stephen.
"I can't help it if he is your brother," continued Luke. "He's injured me, and I'll make him suffer for it."
"You needn't think I'm going to stand up for him," said Stephen; "I hate him myself. Didn't he prevent me from——"
"Robbing your little sister," said Luke, finishing out the sentence.