Weatherstone rolled home silently, a silence of thunderous portent. Another purple person opened the door fo

length. "Of course it was Mrs. Dankshire's fault in the first plac

e emptied her exquisit

e, I suppose," she said. "

ve I heard such nonsense. Talk like that would be dangerous, if it were not a

t of a tradition, the habits of a lifetime, the effect

ted and impressed. She is evidently a young woman of knowledge a

ill after this, I am sure. Hadn't you better go an

I do not wish to lie down. I haven't felt so thoroughly awake in-" she drew a pink cluster of oleande

plied. "You're not like yourself at all to

y by serenely kissing her. "Not at all!" she said ga

courage, her common sense; and something of tenderness and consecration she discerned also, had touched deep chords in this woman's nature. It was like the soun

and high color of the matron-in-office, this pale quiet slender woman looked like a meek and transient visitor. But her white forehead was broad under its so

hought contemptuously, "who stayed so long in that dungeon because it didn't occur to him to open the door

pressed, but now flaming out in clear conviction in the light of Diantha's wor

own was an impressive one, her hair coiled high, a gold

r in shy admiration. Mrs. Weatherstone looked at her with new

was scarce more. "Only a week

ngaged

alsey,

herself, "and I engaged Mrs. Halsey!" "D

she stopped, blushed, and continued b

ou ask Mrs. Halsey to co

n ever with the desirability

stone, that young gentleman stepped out and intercepted

s, sir! I'm on an e

there seemed no escape and she was in haste, she

rom her real mistress, and resting comfortably

sed," she sai

da, "dressed splendid. Sh

asperity, hastily buttoning her gown; and she present

cious, her long ivory paper-cutter

could you pack, Mrs.

doing packing. I'll send one of th

and leave the house-in an hour. One of the maids can help you, if necessary. Anything

and with a moist and crafty eye. This was so sudden a misadventure that she forgot her usual caution. "You

ill find that a month's warning, or a month's wages, was specified. Here

hom,

u understand me. Oscar will take you

a moment-saw more than she ca

discharge; also, by some coincidence, she met Mr. Matthew in the hall upstairs, and weepingl

ust have gone out, and in truth she had; out on her own roof, where she sat quite sti

mogony the central sun was a round mahogany table; all other details of housekeeping revolved about it in varying orbits. To serve an en

nounced; and when her daughter-in-law, serene and royally attired, took her place

were out, Viva,"

rum. "It is charming outside at this t

the meal; and when they were left with their coffee in the drawing room, he

the grandmother. "The poor woman is grea

n shame," s

it. "The door was there all the time!" she thought to herself, as she looked her stepson

at all. I discharged Mrs. Halsey about an hour before dinner. The terms of th

cable, yet perfectly polite piece of what she still felt to be in the nature

nsatisfactory and shall replace her with something better presently

r it-had a headache-must go to her room-went to her room forthwith. There was a tension in the at

of the great empty room. She even laughed a little. "It's open!" said she, and ordered the ca

engage her on the spot, had asked time to consider a number of good opportunities offered, and had survived the cold and angry glances of the now smaller but far more united Home and Culture Club. She declined to tal

," she said, "I am no

heir cards-and said the

men? And gentlemen, I suppose? I am a wo

e reporters, and spent themselves on her persona

a short cut to the house where she had rented a ro

in front of her and asked questions. The girl's blood surged to her cheeks; she smiled grimly, ke

men stood about the doorway as the flushed heroine of the afternoon made her brusque entrance." These adorers consisted of the landlady's Johnny, aged thir

about it. That is, she told him most of it, all the pleasant things, all the funny things; leaving out about the reporters, because she was too angry to be just, she

erous and reliable. 'When you begin any such business as you have outlined, you may count on me, Miss Bell,' he said, and gave me his card. He's a lawyer-P. L. Wiscomb; nice man, I should think. Another big, sheepish-l

the pleasant episode of the minister and young Mrs. Weatherstone's rema

at her door. "Lady

e," said Diantha; "

landlady stretched her lean neck around the door edge

," she said. But a voice broke in from the hall, "I beg your pardo

yes. "I was a schoolmate of Ellen Porne," she told the girl. "We are dear friends still; and so I feel that I know y

sit down?"

ave done me so much good already. I was just a New England bred school teacher myse

t I want to tell you about it. I feel sure you'll understand. At home, Madam Weatherstone has had everything in charge for years and years, and I've been too lazy or too weak, or too indifferent, to do anything. I didn't care, somehow. All the machinery of living, and no living-no good of it all! Yet there didn't seem to be anything else to do. Now you have waked me all

looked at the eager lady as if

or this business; but it can't hurt you much to put them off six months, say. Meantime, you could be practicing. Our place at Santa Ulrica is almost

p. "No-you are right there,"

ing your business, won't you?" her visitor went on. "And the

to start somewhere-take a cottage, a dozen girls or s

in my girls, get in new ones if you like; it doesn't seem to me it would conflict. But to spe

of it all. "I'm a slow thinker," she said, "and this is so-so attractive that I'm

king of going?" aske

nta Ul

tage and our girls and give them part t

made definite e

t ki

ook and three second

a change at the house, for various reasons. You bring them to me as soon as you li

ight. She looked around for an excuse

e letter," she said, misch

isapproving back ineffectual in