retary was due to increased
pressure of the rules of the House of Martha. I would not, I could not,
believe that a fit of pique, occasioned by my apparent want of interest
in her, could make her thus cold and even rude. She was not the kind of
girl to do this thing of her own volition. It was those wretched rules;
and if they were to be enforced in this way, the head of the House of
Martha should know that I considered the act a positive discourtesy, if
nothing more.

I was angry,--that was not to be wondered at; but it was a great relief
to me to feel that I need not be angry with my secretary.

XX.

TOMASO AND I.

The next day my amanuensis bade me good-morning in her former pleasant
manner, but without turning toward me seated herself quickly at the
table, and took the manuscript from the drawer. "Oh, ho!" I thought,
"then you can speak; and it was not the rules which made you behave in
that way, but your own pique, which has worn off a little." I glanced at
her as she intently looked over the work of the day before, and I was
considering whether or not it would be fitting for me to show that there
might be pique on one side of the grating as well as on the other, when
suddenly my thoughts were interrupted by a burst of laughter,--girlish,
irrepressible laughter. With the manuscript in her hands, my nun
actually leaned back in her chair and laughed so heartily that I wonder
my grandmother did not hear her.

"I declare," she said, turning to me, her eyes glistening with tears of
merriment, "this is the funniest thing I ever saw. Why, you have
actually separated those poor lovers for life, and crushed every hope in
the properest way. And then all the rest about commerce! I wouldn't have
believed you could do it."

"What do you mean?" I exclaimed. "You showed no surprise when you wrote
it."

Again she laughed.

"Wrote it!" she cried. "I never wrote a line of it. It was Sister Sarah
who was your secretary yesterday. Didn't you know that?"

I stood for a moment utterly unable to answer; then I gasped, "Sister
Sarah wrote for me yesterday! What does it mean?"

"Positively," said she, pushing back her chair and rising to her feet,
"this is not only the funniest, but the most wonderful thing in the
world. Do you mean truly to say that you did not know it was Sister
Sarah who wrote for you yesterday?"

"I did not suspect it for an instant," I answered.

"It was, it was!" she exclaimed, clasping her han