ng, and rarely took tea with a friend
without slipping a teaspoon into her pocket. Mr. Y---- had a great
deal of trouble with her, and, in several cases, paid handsomely to
induce parties disposed to prosecute her for theft, to let the
matter drop. Now do you know that it has occurred to me that,
perhaps, Mrs. Comegys is afflicted in this way? I shouldn't at all
wonder if it were so."

"Hardly."

"I'm afraid it is as I suspect. A number of suspicious circumstances
have happened when she has been about, that this would explain. But
for your life, Mrs. Florence, don't repeat this to any mortal!"

"I shall certainly not speak of it, Mrs. Grimes. It is too serious a
matter. I wish I had not heard of it, for I can never feel toward
Mrs. Comegys as I have done. She is a very pleasant woman, and one
with whom it is always agreeable and profitable to spend an hour."

"It is a little matter, after all," remarked Mrs. Grimes, "and,
perhaps, we treat it too seriously."

"We should never think lightly of dishonest practices, Mrs. Grimes.
Whoever is dishonest in little things, will be dishonest in great
things, if a good opportunity offer. Mrs. Comegys can never be to me
what she has been. That is impossible."

"Of course you will not speak of it again."

"You need have no fear of that."

A few days after, Mrs. Raynor made a call upon a friend, who said to
her,

"Have you heard about Mrs. Comegys?"

"What about her?"

"I supposed you knew it. _I've_ heard it from half a dozen persons.
It is said that Perkins, through a mistake of one of his clerks,
sent her home some fifteen or twenty yards of lawn more than she had
paid for, and that, instead of sending it back, she kept it and made
it up for her children. Did you ever hear of such a trick for an
honest woman?"

"I don't think any honest woman would be guilty of such an act. Yes,
I heard of it a few days ago as a great secret, and have not
mentioned it to a living soul."

"Secret? bless me! it is no secret. It is in every one's mouth."

"Is it possible? I must say that Mrs. Grimes has been very
indiscreet."

"Mrs. Grimes! Did it come from her in the first place?"

"Yes. She told me that she was present when the lawn came home, and
saw Mrs. Comegys measure it, and heard her say that she meant to
keep it."

"Which she has done. For I saw her in the street, yesterday, with a
beautiful new lawn, and her little Julia was with her, wearing one
precisely like it."