d poor long who remains under your roof, Miss
Althorpe. But perhaps she has lost friends; so many nice girls are
thrown upon their own resources by the death of relatives?"

"She does not wear mourning; but she is in some great trouble for all
that. But this cannot interest you, Miss Butterworth; have you some
_protege_ whom you wished to recommend for the position?"

I heard her, but did not answer at once. In fact, I was thinking how to
proceed. Should I take her into my confidence, or should I continue in
the ambiguous manner in which I had begun. Seeing her smile, I became
conscious of the awkward silence.

"Pardon me," said I, resuming my best manner, "but there is something I
want to say which may strike you as peculiar."

"O no," said she.

"I _am_ interested in the girl you have befriended, and for very
different reasons from those you suppose. I fear--I have great reason to
fear--that she is not just the person you would like to harbor under
your roof."

"Indeed! Why, what do you know about her? Anything bad, Miss
Butterworth?"

I shook my head, and prayed her first to tell me how the girl looked and
under what circumstances she came to her; for I was desirous of making
no mistake concerning her identity with the person of whom I was in
search.

"She is a sweet-looking girl," was the answer I received; "not
beautiful, but interesting in expression and manner. She has brown
hair,"--I shuddered,--"brown eyes, and a mouth that would be lovely if
it ever smiled. In fact, she is very attractive and so lady-like that I
have desired to make a companion of her. But while attentive to all her
duties, and manifestly grateful to me for the home I have given her, she
shows so little desire for company or conversation that I have desisted
for the last day or so from urging her to speak at all. But you asked me
under what circumstances she came to me?"

"Yes, on what day, and at what time of day? Was she dressed well, or did
her clothes look shabby?"

"She came on the very day I advertised; the eighteenth--yes, it was the
eighteenth of this month; and she was dressed, so far as I noticed, very
neatly. Indeed, her clothes appeared to be new. They needed to have
been, for she brought nothing with her save what was contained in a
small hand-bag."

"Also new?" I suggested.

"Very likely; I did not observe."

"O Miss Althorpe!" I exclaimed, this time with considerable vehemence,
"I fear, or rather I hope, she is