ome
permanently."

"I don't smell of horses myself," said Asbury Fuller, musingly, to
which Clarissa making no response other than turning away her head to
hide her blushes, he continued. "But two days will be enough. Indeed,
to-night is the crucial point. I will not beat about the bush longer.
I wish to attach you to my interests. I wish you to serve me to-night
in the crisis of my career."

"Oh, sir," said Clarissa, in the protection that her assumed character
gave her, allowing herself the privilege of speaking her real
sentiments, "I am attached to your interests. Let me serve you.
Command, and I will use my utmost endeavor to obey."

Asbury Fuller looked at her in surprise. Carried away by her feelings
and in the state of mental exaltation which the romance and mystery of
the adventure had induced, she had made a half movement to kneel as
she thus almost swore her fealty in solemn tones.

"Why are you attached to my interests?" asked Asbury Fuller, somewhat
dryly.

Alas, Clarissa could not take advantage of the protection her assumed
character gave her to tell the real reason. Only as a woman could she
do that, only as a woman could she say and be believed, "Because I
love you."

"Why, some people are naturally leaders, naturally draw others to
them----"

"You cannot be a spy upon me, since no one knows who I am."

"A spy!" cried Clarissa, in a voice whose sorrowful reproach gave
convincing evidence of her ingenuousness.

"I wrong you, I wrong you," said Asbury Fuller. "I will trust you. I
will tell you what you are to do----"

"Butler," said a maid, poking her head in at the door, "it is time to
come and give the finishing touches to the table. It is almost time
for the dinner to be served," and without ado, Asbury Fuller sprang
out of the room.

A butler! A butler! Clarissa sat stunned. It was thus that her hero
had turned out. Could she tell the other girls in the store with any
degree of pride that she was keeping company with a butler? She had
received a good literary education in the high school at Muncie,
Indiana, and was a young woman of taste and refinement. Could she
marry a butler? To be near her hero, she herself had just now been
willing to undertake a menial position. But she had then imagined him
to be a person of importance. This stage in her cogitations led her to
the reflection that her feelings were unworthy of her. Had her regard
for Asbury Fuller been all due to the belief that