young man;
so, being in doubt, she resolved to play trumps, and in cases like this
silence is generally trumps.

Mrs. Petter had a mind which could project itself with the rapidity of
light into the regions of possibilities, and if the possibilities
appeared to her desirable her mind moved at even greater velocity. It
was plain to her that there must be something between this young widow
and the young man who was going to bring her a nurse-maid; and if this
were the case, nothing must be allowed to interfere with the admission
of said young man as a guest at the Squirrel Inn.

[Illustration: A GREEK IN AN OUTHOUSE.]

Mrs. Cristie did not want to talk any more on this subject. Nothing
would have pleased her better at that moment than to hear that Mr.
Lodloe had been unable to find her a suitable girl and that business had
called him to New York.

"Mr. Petter," she exclaimed, "I was told yesterday that you kept a Greek
in an outhouse. What on earth does that mean?"

Here Mrs. Petter laughed abruptly, and Mr. Petter slightly lifted his
brow.

"Who could have told you such nonsense?" he said. "There is no Greek
here. It is true that a Greek scholar lives in my summer-house, but that
is very different from keeping a Greek in an outhouse."

"And he's always late to breakfast," said Mrs. Petter; "I believe if we
sat down at the table at nine o'clock he would come in just as we were
finishing."

"How does it happen," said Mrs. Cristie, "that he lives in the
summer-house?"

"He does not know the Rockmores of Germantown," said Mrs. Petter.

"He is a man of learning," remarked Stephen Petter, "with a fine mind;
and although I have made a rule which is intended to keep up the
reputation of this house to a desirable level, I do not intend, if I can
help it, that my rules shall press pinchingly, oppressively, or
irritatively upon estimable persons. Such a person is Mr. Tippengray,
our Greek scholar; and although his social relations are not exactly up
to the mark, he is not a man who should be denied the privileges of this
house, so far as they can be conscientiously given him. So you see, Mrs.
Cristie, that, although I could not take him into the inn, there was no
reason why I should not fit up the summer-house for him, which I did,
and I believe he likes it better than living in the house with us."

"Like it!" exclaimed Mrs. Petter; "I should say he did like it. I
believe it would drive him crazy if he had to keep reg