It was just two years since Frank Vincent brought home his bride.  He had succeeded in securing rooms in a pleasant boarding-house in one of the wide, airy streets of the city; he felt justified in going to the utmost of his means in providing an attractive home; for his Faith had been delicately reared by a wealthy uncle who had frowned upon the love-making of the young bookkeeper, handsome, intelligent, and with unblemished reputation though he was, and held a good position in one of the largest and oldest firms in the city.  The uncle had more ambitious plans for his favourite niece.  He did not forbid the marriage, but gave Faith to understand that if she persisted in marrying a poor man, when a good half million awaited her acceptance, she did it at her own peril, not a penny of his should go to eke out the scanty living of a poor clerk.  The end of it all was a quiet wedding one morning in her uncle’s parlour, and a hasty flitting away of the young couple—­away from ominous looks and cold politeness, out into their own bright world, where no dark shadows in the shape of grim mercenary uncles should ever cross their path.

It was not without many misgivings that the young husband conducted his wife to her apartments, for neat and pretty though they were, they were in marked contrast with the roomy, elegant mansion where she had spent her life, and so was the noisy, dusty city with the beautiful, quiet old town where trees and flowers and birds and pure air and room to breathe in, made existence doubly delightful.  The anxiety was needless; never was child more pleased with play-house than the young bride with her new home.

Life glided peacefully on for many months, then the clouds began to gather in the sky of the financial world.  Business men were anxious, and retrenchment was the order of the day.  Among others to draw in sail was the well-established firm whom Mr. Vincent had served for many years.  The salaries of their employe’s were cut down, in some instances to a mere pittance.  Upon none did the blow fall more heavily than these two inexperienced ones who had made no provision for any such change in their affairs.  They were dismayed; Mr. Vincent tried in vain to secure some more lucrative position, but he soon began to feel that he was most fortunate in such times to have any assured income.  The outgo was greater than the income, and it was plain that they must seek a less expensive home.  They made many trips to the suburbs in the hope of obtaining board at a price that would be within their means, in some pleasant rural home, but no such home opened its doors; evidently the dwellers in the suburbs, when they did take boarders, meant to make it “pay.”  Then they searched the papers and read all the advertisements under the head of “Boarding” within the city.  They climbed long flights of stairs, and interviewed landladies, and looked at rooms with the customary faded carpets and shabby wall-paper and musty smell, in narrow streets withal, that seemed