"And how
did she get the post?" he said. "I remember in one of your letters you
complained that her education had cost a lot, and that she was very
unlucky about getting anything to do."
[Sidenote: Uncle Max]
"Yes, it was so, Max. But she owed her success at last to the kindness
of a friend of hers, who won this appointment, and then stepped aside
for her to have it."
"Grand!" cried Max Vernon heartily. "What a good friend that was! It is
a real pleasure to hear of such self-sacrifice in this hard, work-a-day
world. I should like to know that young woman," he continued. "What is
she doing now?"
"I don't know," replied his sister. "But here comes Ethel. She will tell
you."
Ethel had come over from the college on purpose to see her uncle, and
was delighted to welcome him home. He was not more than ten years older
than herself, there being more than that between him and her mother. His
success in New Zealand was partly owing to his charming personality,
which caused him to win the love of his first employer, who adopted him
as his son and heir some six years before he died, leaving all his money
to him. Ethel had pleasant memories of her uncle's kindness to her when
a child.
When hearty greetings had been exchanged between the uncle and niece,
Margaret Forrest said to her daughter: "I have been telling your uncle
about your friend Mary Oliver's giving up that appointment for you, and
he wants to know where she is now, and what she is doing.
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