her. I am amazed that
she should call upon you. You must come with me at once to my rooms."

Jessie put down the paper she was reading and followed her.

As Jessie Bain entered Rosamond's room, she was surprised at the array
of dresses lying on the sofa, the chair-backs, and every conceivable
place.

"I want these all overhauled at once," began the beauty. "They must be
finished by the end of the week."

Jessie looked around at the dresses, surprised at the great amount of
work which Miss Lee was so confident she could accomplish in so short a
time.

Jessie was sure that she saw Rosamond Lee's maid busily stitching away
when she had first entered the room, but she rose hastily and went into
an inner apartment, and a moment later returned with her hand done up
and her arm in a sling.

Rosamond Lee said to herself that it had been a wise stratagem on her
part to make her maid exchange places with Jessie Bain until after the
handsome young man should come and go.

The tasks that Rosamond Lee laid out for Jessie were cruelly hard. She
would say to her each morning, as she laid out this or that bit of work:

"This must be finished by to-morrow morning."

As soon as the clock struck nine, Rosamond would seek her downy couch.
Not for anything in the world would she have lost the few hours of
beauty-sleep before midnight, so essential to young girl's good looks.

But there must be no beauty-sleep for the tired young girl who plied her
needle.

"How dare you!" Rosamond cried. "What do you mean by loitering in this
manner?"

Miss Rosamond insisted that while she was performing the duties of maid
to her, Jessie must take her meals up in her room, declaring that it
really took too much time for her to go and come to the dining-room to
her meals.

On the third afternoon of her banishment she heard the sound of
carriage-wheels, followed by the servants in the corridor crying out
excitedly:

"He has come at last! Now the old gentleman and his wife will be in the
seventh heaven!"

It mattered little to Jessie Bain. She cared not who came or went. She
knew that some young man was expected; but she had not taken interest
enough to listen when the maid, who had come in to do up their rooms
that morning, had broached the subject concerning him.

"Miss Rosamond is very much in love with him," commented the girl, in a
significant whisper, after taking a swift glance over her shoulder to
make sure they were quite alone.