s importance to this step would be the
difficulty of disposing of Aunt Helen, and as a corollary thereto the
necessity of some slight deceit on my part to account for my continuance
in New York. But having gone so far in the matter, I did not suffer
myself to be deterred by trifles. I had, in speaking of our return to
Aunt Helen this morning, dwelt on the importance of not leaving certain
domestic affairs longer unattended to; and it now occurred to me to
compromise with her by suggesting that she should go home, and leave me
with my maid in our lodgings, which were well known to her as thoroughly
quiet and respectable. As was perhaps to be expected, she resisted this
proposal energetically; but as I was resolved to get rid of her at any
cost, I took an obstinate stand, against which tears and flattery were
equally unavailing. I made her return a condition of my remaining;
otherwise I should leave the Honorable Ernest to the mercy of the
maidens of New York. She must take her choice. If she decided to stay I
should go home; and the only possible chance of my becoming Duchess of
Clyde rested on her going home without me. The alternative was too
dreadful for her to withstand my pertinacity. She wished me to remain,
and rather than have her matrimonial project blocked she preferred to
yield, though it was not until she had made a last appeal on the score
of the extreme impropriety of my continuing to stay in New York alone.

When she had finally consented to take her departure, I wrote a note to
the Honorable Ernest and to one or two other friends, announcing that we
had suddenly been called home, and then I sat up far into the night
putting my new-fangled wardrobe into a plausible condition. To be
patched but neat seemed to me the most endurable and ingratiating, and
at the same time an equally secure guise in which to figure, and I
devoted my energies to accomplishing that result before morning. On that
same day also, to my great relief, I succeeded in bundling off Aunt
Helen without further ado, and the field was cleared for operations. I
should have to trust my maid to some extent, and possibly to change my
lodgings; but otherwise I had swept away all obstacles to the indulgence
of this new piece of eccentricity.

It occurred to me, on the way down-town, that Mr. Prime would doubtless
make some inquiries as to my previous history and present circumstances,
and that I must go a step further and concoct some rational sto