'

"'I'm going on an errand for Miss Rosamond,' she answered.

"'You will have a hard time getting to the street-car.'

"'I shall not ride,' said Jessie Bain, 'I shall walk!'

"'Walk?' screamed the other. 'Oh, Jessie Bain, don't you do it; you will
perish; and all because that Rosamond Lee was too stingy to give you
your car-fare. I wish to Heaven that I had the money with me, I'd give
it to you in a minute. But hold on, wait a second-- I'll go and tell the
servants about it, and I reckon that some of them can raise enough money
to see you through.'

"With that I slipped down to the servants' hall, to be ahead of her, and
to hear what she would say, and, oh! bless my life, what a
tongue-lashing they all gave you! It's a wonder your ears didn't burn
like fire, miss.

"They said it was a beastly shame. They wished a mob would come in and
give you a ducking out in the snow-drift, and see how you would like it.
They were not long in making up the money, but when they went to look
for Jessie she was nowhere to be seen.

"I am almost certain that Mr. Hubert Varrick must have heard something
of what was said, for one of the girls saw him standing in the door-way,
listening intently. Before she could utter a word of warning he turned,
with something very like a muttered threat on his lips, and strode down
the corridor.

"When night fell and Jessie Bain had not returned, the anger of the
servants ran high. I attempted to take your part, saying that you didn't
know how bad the day really was, when they set upon me with the fury of
devils.

"'Don't attempt to shield her!' they cried, brandishing their fists in
my face, some of them grazing my very nose.

"'Like mistress, like maid.' We hate you almost as much as we do her.
None of us shall close our eyes to-night until Jessie Bain has been
found; and if she lies dead under the snow-drifts, we will form a
little band that will avenge her! If Jessie Bain has died from exposure
to the terrible storm, Rosamond Lee, who caused it all, shall suffer for
it! If she is not here by midnight--hark you, Janet! bear this message
from us to your mistress, the haughty, heartless heiress--"

But what that message was, Janet whispered in her mistress's ear.

CHAPTER XXVI.

HUBERT VARRICK RESCUES JESSIE BAIN.

We must return to Jessie Bain.

The girl had scarcely proceeded a block through the blinding snow-drifts
ere she began to grow chill and numb.

"I can never make