n's gratitude. He certainly
deserved it. But as he put his hand on the bell Mr. Worthington himself
came out of the house, and would actually have gone by without noticing
Mr. Dodd if he had not spoken.

"I've got that little matter fixed, Mr. Worthington," he said, "called
the committee, and we voted to discharge the--the young woman." No, he
did not deliver Judge Graves's message.

"Very well, Mr. Dodd," answered the great man, passing on so that Mr.
Dodd was obliged to follow him in order to hear, "I'm glad you've come
to your senses at last. Kindly step into the library and tell Miss Bruce
from me that she may fill the place to-morrow."

"Certain," said Mr. Dodd, with his hand to his chin. He watched the
great man turn in at his bank in the new block, and then he did as he
was bid.

By the time school was out that day the news had leaped across Brampton
Street and spread up and down both sides of it that the new teacher had
been dismissed. The story ran fairly straight--there were enough clews,
certainly. The great man's return, the visit of Mr. Dodd, the call on
Judge Graves, all had been marked. The fiat of the first citizen
had gone forth that the ward of Jethro Bass must be got rid of; the
designing young woman who had sought to entrap his son must be punished
for her amazing effrontery.

Cynthia came out of school happily unaware that her name was on the
lips of Brampton: unaware, too, that the lord of the place had come into
residence that day. She had looked forward to living in the same town
with Bob's father as an evil which was necessary to be borne, as one of
the things which are more or less inevitable in the lives of those who
have to make their own ways in the world. The children trooped around
her, and the little girls held her hand, and she talked and laughed with
them as she came up the street in the eyes of Brampton,--came up the
street to the block of new buildings where the bank was. Stepping out of
the bank, with that businesslike alertness which characterized him,
was the first citizen--none other. He found himself entangled among
the romping children and--horror of horrors he bumped into the
schoolmistress herself! Worse than this, he had taken off his hat and
begged her pardon before he looked at her and realized the enormity of
his mistake. And the schoolmistress had actually paid no attention to
him, but with merely heightened color had drawn the children out of his
way and passed on