At the breakfast-table, when Mrs. Asbury remonstrated against her niece's plans, while she looked so pale and haggard, no one present, and least of all the pastor, suspected that it was interest in his future which had kept her till midnight searching among her papers for what she could not find, that disappointment and bitter regret that she had not more carefully guarded so sacred a trust had caused her many tears.
To add to her embarrassment, Mr. Asbury, just as he rose from the table, approached her and said, "Marion, I fear it is your pecuniary situation which troubles you. Promise me that you will apply to me in any need."
"Why, pa!" began Annie in surprise; but she never finished her sentence. Marion, noticing that Mr. Angus was within hearing, gave her cousin a warning glance, coolly said to her uncle, "I promise," and then walked away.
[CHAPTER XI.]
AN APPEAL FOR SYMPATHY.
THE family to whom Mr. Angus wished to introduce Miss Howard lived in a small cottage in the outskirts of the town of N-.
On their way thither he repeated the impression they had made upon him,—that they had seen better days.
"I have been enough among the poor in New York," he said, warming, with the subject, "to be sure that these are not of the kind who would ask for assistance, even though they were suffering. I am eager to know how they will impress you."
He turned to look in her face, which seemed to be unusually thoughtful, but with a bright smile, she explained,—
"I was trying to reconcile irreconcilable facts. For instance, I know a gentleman in New York who has more leisure and money than he knows what to do with, and I was wondering why I should be so very busy and have so little time for work that I like best."