"I didn't know we ran into cellars," she said, faintly; but nobody heeded her, or cared for the anxious and now timid-looking woman, who grew more and more anxious, until suddenly remembering the card, she drew it from her pocket, and the next time the conductor appeared handed it to him, watching him while he read that "Lieutenant Robert Reynolds would consider it as a personal favor if he would see the bearer into the Fourth Avenue cars."
Surely there is a Providence which watches over all; and Lieutenant Reynolds' thoughtfulness was not a mere chance, but the answer to the simple trust Aunt Betsy had that God would take her safely to New York, never doubting until she reached it that she had been heard. And even then she did not doubt it long, for the conductor knew Lieutenant Bob, and attended as faithfully to his wishes as if it had been a born princess instead of Aunt Betsy Barlow whom he led to a street car, ascertaining the number on the Bowery where she wished to stop, and reporting to that conductor, who bowed in acquiescence, after glancing at the woman, and knowing intuitively that she was from the country. Could she have divested herself wholly of the fear that the conductor would forget to put her off at the right place, Aunt Betsy would have enjoyed that ride very much; and as it was, she looked around with interest, thinking New York a mightily cluttered-up place, and wondering if all the folks were in the streets. "They must be a gadding set," she thought; and then, as a lady in flaunting robes took a seat beside her, crowding her into a narrow space, the good old dame thought to show that she did not resent it, by an attempt at sociability, asking if she knew "Mrs. Peter Tubbs, whose husband kept a store on the Bowery?"
"I have not that honor," was the haughty reply, the lady drawing up her costly shawl and moving a little away from her interlocutor, who continued: "I thought like enough you might have seen 'Tilda, or Mattie she calls herself now. She is a right nice girl, and Tom is a very forrard boy."
To this there was no reply; and as the lady soon left the car, Aunt Betsy did not make another attempt at conversation, except to ask once how far they were from the Bowery, adding, as she received a civil answer, "You don't know Mr. Peter Tubbs?"
The worthy man was evidently a stranger to the occupants of that car, and so Aunt Betsy employed her time in wondering if they kept up a sight of style. She presumed they did from what 'Tilda had written to one of Captain Perry's girls about their front parlor, and back parlor, and library; but she did so hope their boarders were not the stuck up kind. In Mrs. Peter Tubbs herself she had the utmost confidence, knowing her to be a kind, friendly woman; and so her heart did not beat quite as fast as it would otherwise have done when the car stopped at last upon a crossing, and the conductor pointed back a few doors to the right, telling her that was her number.