"Five

o'clock, I think," said Dele, plaintively. "The iron--I mean the

rabbit came off the fire about that time. You ought to have seen Gen. Pinkney,

Joe, when--"

"Sit down here a moment, Dele," said Joe. He drew her to

the couch, sat beside her and put his arm across her shoulders.

"What have you been doing for the last two weeks, Dele?"

he asked.

She braved it for a moment or two with an eye full of love and

stubbornness, and murmured a phrase or two vaguely of Gen. Pinkney; but at

length down went her head and out came the truth and tears.

"I couldn't get any pupils," she confessed. "And I

couldn't bear to have you give up your lessons; and I got a place ironing

shirts in that big Twentyfourth street laundry. And I think I did very well to

make up both General Pinkney and Clementina, don't you, Joe? And when a girl in

the laundry set down a hot...