"Yes--a little, but I can't earn anything. I'm too old to work, for I am seventy-seven, and I might live years longer, you know."
"Yes, a little, but it costs a good deal to live."
"Well, if the interest isn't enough, you can use some of the principal. I can put you in the way of earning twenty-five cents."
"Can you?" asked the old woman eagerly. "How?"
"If you'll lend me three dollars till Saturday--I get my wages then--I'll pay you twenty-five cents for the accommodation."
"But you might not pay me," said the old woman cautiously, "and it would kill me to lose three dollars."
Mark wanted to laugh, but felt that it would not do.
"There isn't any danger," he said. "I get two weeks' pay on Saturday. It will be as much as nine dollars, so you see you are sure of getting back your money."
"You might get run over by the horse cars, or a truck, and then you couldn't get your money."
"I will be careful for your sake, Mrs. Mack," said Mark good-humoredly. "You'll get your money back, and twenty-five cents more."
The old woman's face was a study--between avarice on the one hand and timidity on the other.
She rocked to and fro in her chair in her mental perturbation, and Mark saw that his errand was a failure.
"If you change your mind, let me know," he said.
As he reached the foot of the stairs he was treated to a surprise. There just in front of his mother's door stood Solon Talbot and Edgar.
"In what room does your mother live?" asked Solon Talbot.
"This is our home," said Mark, proceeding to open the door.
"I don't see how you can live in such a mean place," he remarked.
"It is not a matter of choice," returned Mark gravely. "We have to live in a cheap tenement."
"Mother," said Mark, preceding the two visitors, "here are Uncle Solon and Edgar come to call on you."
Mrs. Mason's pale cheek flushed, partly with mortification at her humble surroundings, for when she first knew Solon Talbot he was only a clerk, as she had said, and she was a society belle.
There was another feeling also. She had a strong suspicion that her brother-in-law had defrauded her of her share in her father's estate.
"I am glad to see you, Mr. Talbot," she said, extending her hand. "And this is Edgar! How you have grown, Edgar."