is ten dollars; take it, and go back on the first train to your
mother in Richmond."

The girl clung to her husband, sobbing:

"Oh, let me stay and be his slave! I love him so I can not leave him!"

Franklin dared not open his lips, but his blood boiled at the cruel
scene that followed, when Mrs. Ellsworth tore the weeping wife from her
husband with resolute hands and harsh, cruel words, thrusting her
outside the door as she cried:

"Go, now--leave the house at once, or I will send him instantly to an
idiot asylum! What! you will not take my money? High airs for a pauper
upon my word!"

She slammed the door, shutting the wretched young wife out into the
hall, and turned fiercely upon Franklin.

"As you have been a witness to this scene," she cried, "I must also
command your silence. Will money purchase it?"

"No, madame," he replied, with secret indignation.

"Then love for your master must be the motive," she cried, with a fierce
stamp of the foot. "Do you want me to send him to an idiot asylum, where
he can no longer have your faithful care?"

"No, madame, no!" the middle-aged servant replied, trembling with
emotion.

"Then you will hold your tongue upon what has just occurred in this
room? Do you promise?" she cried, harshly.

"I promise," replied Franklin, sadly.

"Very well. See that you do not violate it on pain of serious results to
your master. I am tired of the charge of him anyhow; for who knows how
soon his simple idiocy may turn to dangerous insanity? So the least
provocation from you would cause me to send him to a pauper asylum for
idiots!" she cried, warningly, as she hurried from the room to make sure
that none of the officious servants should dare to harbor her persecuted
victim.

Dainty had already dragged herself out of the house, passing an open
door where Olive and Ela looked out with derisive laughter at her
blighted appearance, with the golden curls all shorn away, and the pale
face stained with tears, while her faded summer gown and the
old-fashioned scarf drawn about her shivering form did not conduce to
the elegance of her appearance.

"Ha! ha! she looks like a beggar!" sneered Olive, adding: "Let us
follow, and see where she goes for shelter. Of course, she will have
shocking tales to tell on us if she can get any one to listen. I should
like to prevent her if I could."

"Nothing will shut her mouth but death!" returned Ela, significantly,
as, unnoticed by any one, they sto