CHAPTER XXXVI.
A LETTER FROM ROSE GARDINER Ben resumed his place as the secretary and confidential clerk of Mrs.
Hamilton.

He found his position more agreeable when Mrs.Hill and Conrad were fairly out of the house.

In place of the first a pleasant-faced German woman was engaged, and there were no more sour looks and sneering words.
Of course Ben kept up a weekly correspondence with his mother.

He did not tell her the extent of his good fortune--he wished that to be a surprise, when the time came.

From his mother, too, he received weekly letters, telling him not unfrequently how she missed him, though she was glad he was doing so well.
One day beside his mother's letter was another.