bserved Mrs. Falkener, rising. "I think it
perfectly outrageous that any servant should own a hat which anywhere
but at a special sale must have cost sixty or seventy dollars."

"And now I'll tell you what I think outrageous," said Lily, her soft
Southern drawl taking on a certain vigor, "and that is that women like
you, calling themselves ladies, should be free to browbeat and insult
servants as much as they please--"

"Shut up, Lily," said Smithfield, but she paid no attention.

"No," she said, "no one knows what I've put up with from this insolent
old harridan, and now I am going to say what I think."

"Oh, no, Lily," said Crane, taking her by the arm, "you really are not.
We're all sorry for the incident, but really, you know you can't be
allowed to talk like that."

"But, Mr. Crane," drawled Lily, "you don't appreciate what a dreadful
woman she is--no one could who did not have to hook her up every
evening."

Between Smithfield and Crane, she was hustled out of the room.

Alone in the hall, Crane and his butler held a consultation.

"She's got to go, Smithfield. Why in the world wouldn't she hold her
tongue? Poor girl, I felt every sympathy with her."

"Oh, sir," exclaimed Smithfield, "what shall we do? Jane-Ellen and I
really can't run the house entirely alone, sir."

"Of course not, of course not," Burton answered. "You must get some more
servants. Get as many as you please--black, white, or red--but for
heaven's sake get the kind that won't be impertinent to Mrs. Falkener."

Smithfield shook his head.

"That's a kind will be hard to find, sir, begging your pardon," he
observed.

Crane thought it best to ignore this remark.

"I tell you what to do," he said. "Call up Mr. Eliot and say we should
all be glad to accept his invitation to lunch to-day if he can still
have us. That will give you a little time to look about you. By
to-morrow you ought to be able to find some one."

He waited to get Eliot's answer before he returned to the sitting-room,
where he saw that Tucker and Mrs. Falkener had had a long, comfortable
talk about their grievances and their own general righteousness. He
hated to break into the calm that had succeeded by announcing that they
were all going out to lunch.

"Burton," said Mrs. Falkener, directing a stern glance at her daughter,
"I explained to you yesterday that was an invitation I did not care to
accept."

"I know," said Crane, "but my household is now so short-hande