f the violent scene which must ensue if Madame de
Gramont discovered her,--made her reluctantly relinquish the attempt.
Then she clung to the hope that her aunt would not, while Count Tristan
lay in so perilous a condition, insist upon discharging Mrs. Lawkins.
All uncertainty upon that head was quickly dispelled by the appearance
of Mrs. Lawkins herself. The countess had peremptorily repeated her
sentence of banishment, and refused to listen to her grandson's
entreaties that she might be permitted to remain until a substitute
could be procured. To search for that substitute was the sole work left
for Madeleine's hands. She despatched the willing housekeeper to make
inquiries among her acquaintances, and charged her to spare neither time
nor expense. Few Europeans can imagine the difficulty of executing such
a commission in America; but the Englishwoman had lived in Washington
long enough to know that she had no light labor before her. She was too
zealous, however, to return home until she had found a person who was
fully qualified to fill her vacant post.

Maurice was sitting beside Madeleine when Mrs. Lawkins returned from her
weary peregrinations and made known her success.

"I did not send for the nurse to come here," said Madeleine. "It seemed
to me better for you, Maurice, to go and see her and engage her to enter
upon her duties to-morrow morning. That will give you an opportunity
this evening of preparing the countess for her reception."

Maurice acted upon Madeleine's suggestion, and, after a very brief
conversation with Mrs. Gratacap, secured her services.

Mrs. Gratacap belonged to the "Eastern States," albeit the very opposite
of _oriental_ in her appearance and characteristics. She was a tall,
angular, grave-visaged person, possessing such decided, common-place
good sense that she came under the head of that feminine class which
Dickens has taught the world to designate as "strong-minded." There was
no "stuff and nonsense" about her; she had a due appreciation of her own
estimable attributes, as well as a firm conviction of the equality of
all mankind, or, more especially, _womankind_. When she accepted a
situation, it was in the conscientious belief that the persons whom she
undertook to serve were the indebted party; yet she was a faithful nurse
and both understood and liked her vocation. In spite of her masculine
bearing toward the rest of the world, she always treated her invalid
charges with womanly