m!" she coughed, pantingly; "but if you please, miss,"
turning and addressing herself to Iris, "the housekeeper is looking for
you, and wants you to come to her."

"Certainly," said Iris, springing up from the piano stool with a face
flushed as red as a peony and a very confused look in her eyes; "I will
go at once;" and with an assumed smile on her face she glided from the
room, muttering below her breath:

"I'd like to choke that little imp of a maid! Whenever I am talking to
Harry Kendal, if I turn around I find her at my elbow."

Katy was about to follow Miss Vincent from the room, when Harry called
to her.

"Remain a moment," he said. "I wish to see you."

With a little courtesy Katy obeyed.

For a moment or two he stood quite still in the center of the room,
toying nervously with the medallion on his watch chain, and a very
perceptible frown on his dark, handsome face.

"Tell me, how long have you been standing there, girl?"

She hung her head, but did not answer; but that silence told him quite
as much as words.

"The wisest girls are those who never see or hear anything," he
declared, eyeing her sharply.

Again Katy courtesied, making no reply. She knew quite well what he
meant.

"I may as well come to the point and say that you are not to mention to
any one anything that has taken place in this house--especially in this
room to-night. Now here is something that may help you to remember the
old adage that 'silence is golden.'" And as he spoke he thrust a bill
into the girl's hand, motioning her from the drawing-room, and turning
abruptly on his heel, he sauntered slowly across the room and flung
himself down in an easy chair.

Katy hurried quickly upstairs.

"The grand rascal!" she muttered; "to pay me to help deceive Miss
Dorothy! How my fingers tingled to box his ears! I longed to stamp my
foot and cry out: 'You handsome villain--engaged to marry one young girl
and making love to another! Oh! for shame! for shame!' It's a pity that
Miss Dorothy hasn't a good big brother to give him the trouncing he so
richly deserves. The Lord knows it's an unhappy life Miss Dorothy will
lead with him, and it would be a blessing in disguise if something
should happen to prevent the marriage from taking place. As for that
sly, black minx, Iris Vincent, she must have a soul as hard as adamant
and cruel as death to cheat a poor blind girl out of her lover, and to
try all her arts to win him from her. They fairly