day before yesterday, returning from an unsuccessful
attempt to get an engagement at Richmond,
some villain stole my purse. But for
a kind gentleman I could not even have paid my
fare. And to-day I strove to find some one in
this wilderness to help me, but in vain, and my
courage is gone; I have been ill, too."

Her story was short. On leaving the family
to whom she went from the Mahons', she set
up a school in some south-coast watering-place.
Not having sufficient capital, she was obliged
to give it up. She then came to London, and
was there seized with rheumatic fever, and on
her recovery found her slender resources almost
exhausted. Her complete destitution, however,
was accomplished by the loss of the purse containing
her all. This was of course told at length
with many interjections.

"Let me speak to you, Uncle Harry," said
Kate, drawing me aside. "I must help this
poor dear thing, and I have not a penny to
spare. Had I not better take her home?
Ellie and I have a large room; she can sleep
there, and perhaps we can help her to pupils."

"My dear girl, you have enough to do to
provide for your own wants. This would be an
imprudence. You do not know what a burden
you may bring upon yourself."

"I know it is imprudent; but what can I
do? She is an eminently self-helpful woman.
I cannot desert her in her sore distress. How
could I ask for help, if I did? No, Uncle
Harry; there is no choice."

"Come with me, dear old friend," she said,
again taking Madame la Rose's hand, " come!
We are poor enough; but what we have, we will
share with you till you can help yourself. Come;
you know what pleasure it will give us to have
you for a guest. Take my arm; it is not far."

"Ah, noble heart! Ever the same from childhood,"
cried the delighted Frenchwoman. "I
must go with thee; yet will I not long be a
burden. I shall gain strength and confidence
amid your kind faces and familiar voices."

"Well," said I, " if madame will let me
assist her— for I see she is a good deal shaken—
we shall reach your abode all the sooner, Kate."

"Ah," returned Madame la Rose, " it is the
gentleman who so kindly assisted me the other
evening! Sir, you have brought me good fortune."

That was a glorious evening at Number
Thirty-five!

How Mahon welcomed the poor lonely Frenchwoman
and treated her " en princess," and
talked of all the obligations he was under to
her, and how he mixed her a tumbler of whisky-punch
(which was abomination to her French
palate), and how he gloried in her reminiscences
of his past grandeur, and confided to her his
prospects of future splendour, would take a far
more eloquent pen than this poor pen of mine to
describe.

I dare say it was all very imprudent. Nevertheless,
if the recording angel's office be not
abolished in these hard times, that night's work
was a grand entry for his glorious volume.

Tulloch was in a sad state about this proceeding
of Kate's. In fact, the whole family
went down I don't know how many per cent
through so flagrant and reckless an act.

"I am afraid those Irish people are incorrigible.
In short, poverty only teaches extravagance
and bad habits. I feel it due to myself to draw
out of that concern as fast as I can. I am an
open-handed open-hearted sort of fellow, and I
feel I must resist my natural inclinations and
try to be consistent. I should have liked well
enough to have given that old woman sixpence
the other night; but you see it would have
been an infringement of principle, eh?"

"Very likely," said I.

"Now, when you are among a substantial lot
of people like the Grimeses and that set, you
feel safe. There will be no demands made upon
you, no—"

A knock at the door interrupted him.

"Come in!" said I. And enter Mahon and
Ellie, looking like a wild rose, in a fresh blue
muslin, a straw bonnet, and white ribbons.

"Come to pay you a visit, Harry, my boy.
Saturday is Ellie's holiday, and poor Timbs is
so ill nobody gives me any work in the office
now, so we came off early. And how are you,
Mr. Tulloch? Faith, you have been a stranger
of late. What have you been doing with yourself?
You ought to come over of an evening,
as you used. We have a most agreeable woman,
staying with us, a French lady, a trifle come
down in the world, like myself, but knows life
well."

Poor Mahon was oblivious of the fact that
Tulloch knew the whole circumstance, and that
the most extended knowledge of life was of small
value in his eyes if not founded on a solid basis
of credit at your banker's.

"Oh, papa! Mr. Tulloch knows all about it,"
said Ellie, with a wicked twinkle in her eye.
"He knows what a misfortune poor madame
met with, and as she wants all sorts of things
we cannot get her, I am going to try a subscription
for her. Now, I know you are rich and
generous, Jammie, so I shall begin with you.
Come! What shall I put you down for?"

Tulloch looked very black. " I seldom subscribe,
except to well-known charities," he
began.

"Well known! and is not this well known?"
cried Ellie. "Come, I'll let you off with a
couple of guineas, in consideration of not appearing
in print. Come, it is cheap, you know;
because if Goldfrap and Co. were getting up a
thing of the kind you would have to give ten."

" Ah," cried Mahon, "do not limit him; maybe
he'd like to give the ten unknown."

We all (except Tulloch) laughed heartily.

"Well," said Tulloch, rising, and speaking
strong Scotch, " I was going over to say good-by
to you to-day, for I am off to Paris for a week
or two."

"Oh, good gracious! Give me the two
sovereigns first. I'll let you off the two shillings,
and I'll tell Kate you are a darling!"

Tulloch resigned himself, and produced the
two sovereigns.

"Give my love to Kate. I'll come and see