led Miss Aldclyffe to indulge in this revelation,
trifling as it was, died out immediately her words were beyond recall;
and the turmoil, occasioned in her by dwelling upon that chapter of her
life, found vent in another kind of emotion--the result of a trivial
accident.

Cytherea, after letting down Miss Aldclyffe's hair, adopted some plan
with it to which the lady had not been accustomed. A rapid revulsion
to irritation ensued. The maiden's mere touch seemed to discharge the
pent-up regret of the lady as if she had been a jar of electricity.

'How strangely you treat my hair!' she exclaimed.

A silence.

'I have told you what I never tell my maids as a rule; of course
_nothing_ that I say in this room is to be mentioned outside it.' She
spoke crossly no less than emphatically.

'It shall not be, madam,' said Cytherea, agitated and vexed that the
woman of her romantic wonderings should be so disagreeable to her.

'Why on earth did I tell you of my past?' she went on.

Cytherea made no answer.

The lady's vexation with herself, and the accident which had led to the
disclosure swelled little by little till it knew no bounds. But what was
done could not be undone, and though Cytherea had shown a most winning
responsiveness, quarrel Miss Aldclyffe must. She recurred to the subject
of Cytherea's want of expertness, like a bitter reviewer, who finding
the sentiments of a poet unimpeachable, quarrels with his rhymes.

'Never, never before did I serve myself such a trick as this in engaging
a maid!' She waited for an expostulation: none came. Miss Aldclyffe
tried again.

'The idea of my taking a girl without asking her more than three
questions, or having a single reference, all because of her good l--,
the shape of her face and body! It _was_ a fool's trick. There, I am
served right, quite right--by being deceived in such a way.'

'I didn't deceive you,' said Cytherea. The speech was an unfortunate
one, and was the very 'fuel to maintain its fires' that the other's
petulance desired.

'You did,' she said hotly.

'I told you I couldn't promise to be acquainted with every detail of
routine just at first.'

'Will you contradict me in this way! You are telling untruths, I say.'

Cytherea's lip quivered. 'I would answer the remark if--if--'

'If what?'

'If it were a lady's!'

'You girl of impudence--what do you say? Leave the room this instant, I
tell you.'

'And I tell you that a person who speaks to a l