is approval of a pretty servant-girl. It was impossible to
look at the two, in their relative situations, without laughing. But
Mrs. Tenbruggen failed to cheat me into altering my opinion of her.
Innocent Miss Jillgall clapped her ugly hands, and said: "Isn't she good
company?"

Mrs. Tenbruggen's social resources were not exhausted yet. She suddenly
shifted to the serious side of her character.

"Perhaps I have improved a little," she said, "as I have advanced in
years. The sorrows of an unhappy married life may have had a purifying
influence on my nature. My husband and I began badly. Mr. Tenbruggen
thought I had money; and I thought Mr. Tenbruggen had money. He was
taken in by me; and I was taken in by him. When he repeated the words
of the marriage service (most impressively read by your friend the
Chaplain): 'With all my worldly goods I thee endow'--his eloquent voice
suggested one of the largest incomes in Europe. When I promised and
vowed, in my turn, the delightful prospect of squandering my rich
husband's money made quite a new woman of me. I declare solemnly, when I
said I would love, honor, and obey Mr. T., I looked as if I really
meant it. Wherever he is now, poor dear, he is cheating somebody. Such
a handsome, gentleman-like man, Selina! And, oh, Mr. Governor, such a
blackguard!"

Having described her husband in those terms, she got tired of the
subject. We were now favored with another view of this many-sided woman.
She appeared in her professional character.

"Ah, what a delicious breeze is blowing, out here in the country!" she
said. "Will you excuse me if I take off my gloves? I want to air my
hands." She held up her hands to the breeze; firm, muscular, deadly
white hands. "In my professional occupation," she explained, "I am
always rubbing, tickling, squeezing, tapping, kneading, rolling,
striking the muscles of patients. Selina, do you know the movements of
your own joints? Flexion, extension, abduction, adduction, rotation,
circumduction, pronation, supination, and the lateral movements. Be
proud of those accomplishments, my dear, but beware of attempting
to become a Masseuse. There are drawbacks in that vocation--and I am
conscious of one of them at this moment." She lifted her hands to
her nose. "Pah! my hands smell of other people's flesh. The delicious
country air will blow it away--the luxury of purification!" Her fingers
twisted and quivered, and got crooked at one moment and straight again