"I'll see who it is," offered Ruth, with a sympathetic glance at
Alice, who seemed distressed. Then, as Ruth saw who it was, she drew
back. "Oh!" she exclaimed, helplessly.
"Who is it?" asked Mr. DeVere, rising.
"I've come for the rent!" exclaimed a rasping voice. "This is about
the tenth time, I guess. Have you got it?" and a burly man thrust
himself into the room from the hall.
"The rent--Oh!" murmured Mr. DeVere, helplessly. "Let me see; have we
the rent ready, Ruth?"
"No," she answered, with a quick glance at the table where she had
been going over the accounts, and where a little pile of bills lay.
"No, we haven't the rent--to-day."
"And I didn't expect you'd have it," sneered the man. "But I've come
to tell you this. It's either pay your rent or----" He paused
significantly and nodded in the direction of the street.
"Three days more--this is the final notice," and thrusting a paper
into the nerveless hand of Mr. DeVere, the collector strode out.
CHAPTER IX
MR. DEVERE DECIDES
Mr. DeVere sank into a chair. Ruth looked distressed as her father
glanced over the dispossess notice, for such it was.
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