er than call anyone "Miss," and I
shouldn't wonder if she would have felled me to the earth rather than
give me a "ladyship" had it been required of her.

"Are you _sure_?" I persisted, my heart preparing for a plunge
bootward.

"I guess so," said the girl with a superior but not ill-natured smile.
"She _was_ staying with us, but she went day before yesterday. I don't
think she'll be back, because she's gone to take care of a friend who's
real sick, way back in Ohio somewhere."

"Way back in Ohio somewhere!" The words were like a knell for all my
hopes. I didn't know what was to become of me now.

"I am sorry," I said. "Do you know if a telegram came for Miss Woodburn
yesterday?"

"Yesindeed," replied the young woman, all in one word, but her face
brightened. Suddenly she was looking at me like a long-lost friend. "I
guess you're expected. Mrs. Hale, that's the lady of the house here,
sent the telegram on, and Miss Woodburn telegraphed back about you.
Mrs. Hale went to meet your train, but maybe she didn't recognise you
or else she got caught at the bridge. Anyhow she hasn't come back yet.
I guess you'd better come in. Your room is all ready for you."

"My room?" I stammered.

"Why--yes, of course. Mrs. Hale expects you to stay with us till you're
good and ready to go somewhere else. You'll like her. She's a nice
lady, if I do say it myself."

"She's too kind," I exclaimed. "I never heard of such kindness to a
stranger."

"Oh, maybe you haven't been in America long," said the kind lady's
servant. "I guess it would be just the same in most any house over
here. You come right in, and I'll take you up to your room."

I hadn't thought at first I could like that girl so much, but my heart
warmed to her and her mistress, and everything that was hers. Only I
couldn't stay. I would have to move on somewhere, like the poor tramps
in the Park at home.

"I can't do that, though I'm very grateful indeed to Mrs. Hale," I
said. "I--I have other plans. I'll just scribble a little note to tell
her so, and thank her, then I must go."

"She'll just never forgive me if I let you," protested the young woman.

I began to be a little afraid that I might be detained by well-meant
force; but when I had written a letter to Mrs. Hale, (squeezing Vivace
under one arm and sitting at a desk in a bright, charming drawing-room
where three Persian cats, six Japanese spaniels and a number of birds
played about the floor) I contrived to