After a full survey of the rooms, and a discussion of the beauties and elegancies of the establishment, they all descended to the dining-room, and, in response to Mrs. Dillingham’s order, were served with tea.

“You really must excuse me, Mrs. Belcher,” said the beautiful lady deprecatingly, “but I have been here for a week, and it seems so much like my own home, that I ordered the tea without thinking that I am the guest and you are the mistress.”

“Certainly, and I am really very much obliged to you;” and then feeling that she had been a little untrue to herself, Mrs. Belcher added bluntly:  “I feel myself in a very awkward situation—­obliged to one on whom I have no claim, and one whom I can never repay.”

“The reward of a good deed is in the doing, I assure you,” said Mrs. Dillingham, sweetly.  “All I ask is that you make me serviceable to you.  I know all about the city, and all about its ways.  You can call upon me for anything; and now let’s talk about the house.  Isn’t it lovely?”

“Yes,” said Mrs. Belcher, “too lovely.  While so many are poor around us, it seems almost like an insult to them to live in such a place, and flaunt our wealth in their faces.  Mr. Belcher is very generous toward his family, and I have no wish to complain, but I would exchange it all for my little room in Sevenoaks.”

Mr. Belcher, who had been silent and had watched with curious and somewhat anxious eyes the introductory passage of this new acquaintance, was rasped by Mrs. Belcher’s remark into saying:  “That’s Mrs. Belcher, all over! that’s the woman, through and through!  As if a man hadn’t a right to do what he chooses with his money!  If men are poor, why don’t they get rich?  They have the same chance I had; and there isn’t one of ’em but would be glad to change places with me, and flaunt his wealth in my face.  There’s a precious lot of humbug about the poor which won’t wash with me.  We’re all alike.”

Mrs. Dillingham shook her lovely head.

“You men are so hard,” she said; “and Mrs. Belcher has the right feeling; but I’m sure she takes great comfort in helping the poor.  What would you do, my dear, if you had no money to help the poor with?”

“That’s just what I’ve asked her a hundred times,” said Mr. Belcher.  “What would she do?  That’s something she never thinks of.”

Mrs. Belcher shook her head, in return, but made no reply.  She knew that the poor would have been better off if Mr. Belcher had never lived, and that the wealth which surrounded her with luxuries was taken from the poor.  It was this, at the bottom, that made her sad, and this that had filled her for many years with discontent.

When the tea was disposed of, Mrs. Dillingham rose to go.  She lived a few blocks distant, and it was necessary for Mr. Belcher to walk home with her.  This he was glad to do, though she assured him that it was entirely unnecessary.  When they were in the street, walking at a slow pace, the lady, in her close, confiding way, said: