must make a spectacle of yourself again, I suppose,
to please that little tyrant," laughed Walter, as he turned back with
his friend towards the group of young girls.

Now in this company was one who looked with the envious malignity of
Satan upon the well-merited honors of the poor peasant boy. This enemy
was Alfred Burghe, and he was now savagely waiting his opportunity to
inflict upon Ishmael a severe mortification.

As Walter and Ishmael, therefore, approached the group of young ladies,
Alfred, who was loitering near them, lying in wait for his victim, drew
away with an expression of disgust upon his face, saying:

"Oh, if that fellow is to join our circle, I shall feel obliged to leave
it. It is degrading enough to be forced to mix with such rubbish in the
schoolroom, without having to associate with him in the drawing room."

"What do you mean by that, sir?" demanded Miss Merlin, flashing upon him
the lightning of her eyes, before Ishmael had drawn near enough to
overhear the words of Alfred.

"I mean that fellow is not fit company for me."

"No; Heavens knows that he is not!" exclaimed Claudia pointedly.

"Never mind, Miss Merlin; do not be angry with him; the beaten have a
right to cry out," said Ishmael, who had now come up, and stood smiling
among them, totally unconscious of the humiliation that was in store for
him.

"I am not angry; I am never angry with such dull pups; though I find it
necessary to punish them sometimes," replied Claudia haughtily.

"I say he is no fit company for me; and when I say that, I mean to say
that he is no fit company for any young gentleman, much less for any
young lady!" exclaimed Alfred.

Ishmael looked on with perfect good humor, thinking only that his
poverty was sneered at, and feeling immeasurably above the possibility
of humiliation or displeasure upon that account.

Claudia thought as he did, that only his lowly fortunes had exposed him
to contempt; so putting her delicate white gloved hand in that of
Ishmael, she said:

"Ishmael Worth is my partner in the first dance; do you dare to hint
that the youth I dance with is not proper company for any gentleman, or
any lady, either?"

"No, I don't hint it; I speak it out in plain words; he is not only not
fit company for any gentleman or lady, but he is not even fit company
for any decent negro!"

Ishmael, strong in conscious worth, and believing the words of Alfred to
be only reckless assertion, senseless ab