the one just mentioned being sufficient to carry all the weight influence could produce. One of the group stepped back thinking to avoid a direct collision, but the piercing black eyes were upon him.
"I am sure you will not refuse me," she said, "if you cannot give so much, every little helps you know," laying her hand on his arm. He gave her a dollar, thinking himself well off to escape so. From the whole group she collected the ten dollars asked for, and straightway sallied to another circle seated near the speaker's stand.
They would gladly have made their egress, not from lack of sympathy or avaricious motives, but from the disagreeable sensation of being continually importuned for money, and a secret desire to be for once present at any place secure, from the intrusion of the bustling Mrs. Frizzlewit.
"It is well for the world there are people in it like Mrs. Frizzlewit, but begging may become a passion like any other pursuit," observed Mr. Livingston to Miss Blanche, as soon as the subject of his remark was beyond hearing.
"True," replied she, "but you cannot say of it what you can of most any other pursuit, that it will ever incite to rivalry for the sake of its monopoly."
"Not much danger of that certainly, and pity 'tis, 'tis true."
"I often think so. The raising of money for any object is generally the most disagreeable as well as the hardest part of the work. I have the highest regard for Mrs. Frizzlewit on that account, and appreciate her services accordingly. No one ever excited
