med. "Get up and let me see what sort of a
looking creature you are."

Carmen rose, and Mrs. Reed came forward and gave her a tempered
greeting. Then Mrs. Hawley-Crowles fell back and stared at the girl
from head to foot. "You know," she said to her sister, "this is the
first glimpse I've had of your husband's discovery. I was out of the
city when he brought her to my house, you remember. But," turning
again to Carmen, "sing that song over, dear, please--the one you were
singing just now."

Carmen seated herself again at the organ, and Mrs. Hawley-Crowles drew
her sister to the rear of the room. "It will sound better back here,"
she explained.

After the lapse of a few minutes she turned to Mrs. Reed. "Belle," she
said, nodding her head sententiously, "you had a pearl, and you threw
it away. That girl there is our social fortune! Her voice, and her
face--why, with our ward--this beautiful, gifted, South American owner
of a famous mine--as a lever, we can force the Beaubien to bring the
Ames to our terms! She goes back with us to-night! You've been
blind!"

Meantime, the dainty Madam Elwin and the amiable Doctor Jurges in the
office below had reached a conclusion. "A young lady of--ah--invincible
will," the doctor had observed; "and already--ah--decidedly mature,
despite her tender years. Should she--ah--assume leadership over the
pupils of your school, my dear Madam Elwin, the result might be
disquieting. There can be no question as to her religious views, as I
have said. But, what astonishes me is--ah--that this strange cult
should have its devotees even in the wilds of tropical America!
Astonishing--and so unfortunate! The girl is utterly--ah--unevangelical,
Madam; and the advisability of removing her from the school can not be
questioned. Do you not agree with me, Mr. Ketchim?"

"By all means," asserted the latter gentleman with great seriousness,
while his eyes dwelt tenderly upon Madam Elwin's written order for a
hundred shares of Simiti stock which he held in his hand.

"Very well, then," said the lady with a determined nod of her head; "I
shall request Mrs. Reed to take her to-day." Then, with a proper sense
of what it meant to have the moral support of such an eminent divine
as Doctor Jurges, she rang for her maid and bade her summon Mrs. Reed
and the girl.

Thus it was that Carmen was again shifted a space on the checkerboard
of life, and slept that night once more under the spacious roof of the
wealt