had her end in view. No
rebuke was uttered, and during her talk she observed intercourse passing
between the eyes of the young men.

"Look here, Penelope," Richard stopped her at last. "Will it make you
comfortable if I tell you I'll obey the laws of my nature and go down at
the end of the week?"

"I'll thank the Lord of heaven if you do!" she exclaimed.

"Very well, then--be happy--I will. Now listen. I want you to keep your
rooms for me--those she had. I expect, in a day or two, to bring a lady
here"--

"A lady?" faltered Mrs. Berry.

"Yes. A lady."

"May I make so bold as to ask what lady?"

"You may not. Not now. Of course you will know."

Mrs. Berry's short neck made the best imitation it could of an offended
swan's action. She was very angry. She said she did not like so many
ladies, which natural objection Richard met by saying that there was only
one lady.

"And Mrs. Berry," he added, dropping his voice. "You will treat her as
you did my dear girl, for she will require not only shelter but kindness.
I would rather leave her with you than with any one. She has been very
unfortunate."

His serious air and habitual tone of command fascinated the softness of
Berry, and it was not until he had gone that she spoke out. "Unfort'nate!
He's going to bring me an unfort'nate female! Oh! not from my babe can I
bear that! Never will I have her here! I see it. It's that bold-faced
woman he's got mixed up in, and she've been and made the young man think
he'll go for to reform her. It's one o' their arts--that is; and he's too
innocent a young man to mean anythin' else. But I ain't a house of
Magdalens no! and sooner than have her here I'd have the roof fall over
me, I would."

She sat down to eat her supper on the sublime resolve.

In love, Mrs. Berry's charity was all on the side of the law, and this is
the case with many of her sisters. The Pilgrim sneers at them for it, and
would have us credit that it is their admirable instinct which, at the
expense of every virtue save one, preserves the artificial barrier simply
to impose upon us. Men, I presume, are hardly fair judges, and should
stand aside and mark.

Early next day Mrs. Berry bundled off to Richard's hotel to let him know
her determination. She did not find him there. Returning homeward through
the park, she beheld him on horseback riding by the side of the identical
lady.

The sight of this public exposure shocked her more than the secret walk
u