Ambrose Kean called with Luke an evening or two later to thank Mrs. Merton in person for her kindness. They arrived ten minutes after Mrs. Tracy and Harold had started for Hooley's Theater, and thus were saved an embarrassing meeting with two persons who would have treated them frigidly.
They were conducted upstairs by the servant, and were ushered into Mrs. Merton's room.
Ambrose Kean was naturally ill at ease, knowing that Mrs. Merton was acquainted with the error he had committed. But the old lady received him cordially.
"I am glad to meet the son of my old schoolmate, Mary Robinson," she said.
"In spite of his unworthiness?" returned Ambrose, his cheek flushing with shame.
"I don't know whether he is unworthy. That remains to be seen."
"You know I yielded to temptation and committed a theft."
"Yes; but it was to help your mother."
"It was, but that does not relieve me from guilt."
"You are right; still it greatly mitigates it. Take my advice; forget it, and never again yield to a similar temptation."
"I will not, indeed, Mrs. Merton," said the young many earnestly. "I feel that I have been very fortunate in escaping the consequences of my folly, and in enlisting your sympathy."
"That is well! Let us forget this disagreeable circumstance, and look forward to the future. How is Mary your mother?"
"She is an invalid."
"And poor. There is a remedy for poverty. Let us also hope there is a remedy for her ill-health. But tell me, why did you not come to see me before? You have been some time in Chicago."
"True, but I knew you were a rich lady. I didn't think you would remember or care to hear from one so poor and obscure as my mother."
"Come, I consider that far from a compliment," said the old lady. "You really thought as badly of me as that?"
"I know you better now," said Ambrose, gratefully.
"It is well you do. You have no idea how intimate your mother and I used to be. She is five years my junior, I think, so that I regarded her as a younger sister. It is many years since we met. And how is she looking?"
"She shows the effects of bad health, but I don't think she looks older than her years."
"We have both changed greatly, no doubt. It is to be expected. But you can tell her that I have not forgotten the favorite companion of my school days."
"I will do so, for I know it will warm her heart and brighten her up."
"When we were girls together our worldly circumstances did not greatly differ. But I married, and my husband was very successful in business."
"While she married and lost all she had."
"It is often so. It might have been the other way. Your mother might have been rich, and I poor; but I don't think she would have been spoiled by prosperity any more than I have been. Now tell me how you are situated."
"I am a clerk, earning twelve dollars a week."
"And your employer--is he kind and considerate?"
"He is just, but he has strict notions. Had he learned my slip the other day he would have discharged me, perhaps had me arrested. Now, thanks to your prompt kindness, he knows and will know nothing of it."
"Is he likely to increase your salary?"
"He will probably raise me to fifteen dollars a week next January. Then I can get along very well. At present it is difficult for me, after sending my mother four dollars a week, to live on the balance of my salary."
"I should think it would be."
"Still, I would have made it do, but for mother's falling sick, and so needing a larger allowance."
"I hope she is not seriously ill," said Mrs. Merton, with solicitude.
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