elief and joy. "It is almost too late
and I thought the young woman had not attended to sending them, that
she had failed me."

"She would not fail you, sir," said Clarissa, earnestly, allowing
herself in the protection her assumed character gave her the pleasure
of giving utterance to her feeling of regard for the young man. "She
would not fail, sir, she could not fail you. Oh, you wrong her, if you
think she could ever break her word to you."

Asbury Fuller bent an inscrutable look upon Clarissa and then bidding
her remain until his return, hastily left the room. But though he was
gone, Clarissa sat gloating upon the mental picture of his manly
beauty. He seemed taller than before, for the stoop he had worn in the
afternoon had now departed and he stood erect and muscular in the suit
of full evening dress that set off his lithe, soldierly form to such
advantage. His garb was of an elegance such as Clarissa had never
before beheld, and it was plain that the aristocracy affected certain
adornments in the privacy of their homes which they did not caparison
themselves with in public. Clarissa had seen dress suits in
restaurants and in theaters, but never before had she seen a
bottle-green dress coat with gold buttons and a velvet collar and a
vest with broad longitudinal stripes of white and brown. In a brief
space, Asbury Fuller returned, and glancing at his watch, he said:

"There is some time before the dinner party begins and I would like to
talk with you. I am impressed by your apparent honesty and
particularly by the air of devotion to duty that characterizes you.
The latter I have more often remarked in women than in the more
selfish sex to which we belong. We need a boy here. Wages, twenty
dollars a month and keep."

"Oh, sir, I should be pleased to come."

"Your duties will commence at once. Owing to the fact that this old
house has been empty for some time and the work of rehabilitating and
refurnishing it is far from completed, you cannot at present have a
room to yourself. You will sleep with John Klussmann, the hostler----"

"Oh, sir, I cannot do that," exclaimed Clarissa, starting up in alarm.

"John is a good boy and kicks very little in his sleep. But doubtless
you object to the smell of horses."

"Oh, sir, let me do what is needed this evening and go home and I will
come back and work to-morrow and go home to-morrow night, and if by
that time you find I can have a room by myself, perhaps I will c