“He will find out quick enough,” laughed a girl, “and then he will do what they all do.”

“No,” said Miss De Voe.  “I suspect it will make no difference.  He isn’t that kind, I think.  I really am curious to see if I have to ask him a second time.  It will be the only case I can remember.  I’m afraid, my dears, your cousin is getting to be an old woman.”

Peter, had in truth, met, and spent over four hours in the company of a woman whom every one wished to know.  A woman equally famous for her lineage, her social position, her wealth and her philanthropy.  It would not have made any difference, probably, had he known it, though it might have increased his awkwardness a little.  That he was not quite as unconscious as Miss De Voe seemed to think, is shown by a passage in a letter he wrote to his mother: 

“She was very much interested in the case, and asked a good many questions about it, and about myself.  Some which I would rather not have answered, but since she asked them I could not bring myself to dodge them.  She asked me to come and see her again.  It is probably nothing but a passing interest, such as this class feel for the moment.”—­[Then Peter carefully inked out “such as this class feel for the moment,” and reproved himself that his bitterness at—­at—­at one experience, should make him condemn a whole class]—­“but if she asks me again I shall go, for there is something very sweet and noble about her.  I think she is probably some great personage.”

Later on in the letter he wrote: 

“If you do not disapprove, I will put this money in the savings bank, in a special or trustee account, and use it for any good that I can do for the people about here.  I gave the case my service, and do not think I am entitled to take pay when the money can be so much better employed for the benefit of the people I tried to help.”

CHAPTER XVIII.

ANOTHER CLIENT.

Peter had seen his clients on the morning following the settlement of the cases, and told them of their good fortune.  They each had a look at Bohlmann’s check, and then were asked how they would like their shares.

“Sure,” said Dooley, “Oi shan’t know what to do wid that much money.”

“I think,” said Peter, “that your two thousand really belongs to the children.”

“That it does,” said Mrs. Dooley, quite willing to deprive her husband of it, for the benefit of her children.

“But what shall Oi do wid it?” asked Mr. Dooley.

“I’d like Mr. Stirling to take charge of mine,” said Blackett.

“That’s the idea,” said Dooley.

And so it was settled by all.  Peter said the best thing would be to put it in the savings bank.  “Perhaps later we’ll find something better.”  They all went around to a well-known institution on the Bowery, and Peter interviewed the cashier.  It proved feasible to endorse over the check to the bank, and credit the proper share to each.