d rest.

"After all, I thought to myself, why should not I find some
respectable, superior, motherly woman, and put myself under her as a
servant, make her my friend by good conduct, and have some regular
hours and some definite income, instead of wearing out my life in
service without pay? Nothing stood in my way but the traditionary
shadow of gentility, and I resolved it should not stop me.

"Years before, when I was only eight or ten years old, I had met your
mother with your family at the seaside, where my mother took me. I had
seen a great deal of her, and knew all about her. I remembered well
her habitual consideration for the nurses and servants in her employ.
I knew her address in Boston, and I resolved to try to find a refuge
in her family. And so there is my story. I left a note with my
stepmother, saying that I was going to seek independent employment,
and then went to Boston to your house. There I hoped to find a quiet
asylum,--at least, till I could hear from my aunt in Scotland. The
delay of hearing from her during those two years at your house often
made me low-spirited."

"But what made you so afraid of McPherson?" said I nervously. "I
remember your faintness, and all that, the day he called."

"Oh, that? Why, it was merely this,--they were on intimate visiting
terms with my mother-in-law, and I knew that it would be all up with
my plans if they were to be often at the house."

"Why didn't you tell my mother?" said I.

"I did think of it, but then"--She gave me a curious glance.

"But what, Mary?"

"Well, I could see plainly enough that there were no secrets between
you and her, and I did not wish to take so fine a young gentleman into
my confidence," said Mary. "You will observe I was not out seeking
flirtations, but an honest independence."

* * * * *

My mother was apprised of our engagement in due form, and came to
Newport, all innocence, to call on Miss McIntyre, her intended
daughter-in-law. Her astonishment at the moment of introduction was
quite satisfactory to me.

For the rest, Mary's talents in making a home agreeable have had since
then many years of proof; and where any of the little domestic chasms
appear which are formed by the shifting nature of the American
working-class, she always slides into the place with a quiet grace,
and reminds me, with a humorous twinkle of the eye, that she is used
to being second girl.

A SCHOLAR'S ADVENTURE