"I don't think I heard--or I've forgotten. But he's got the place next
to a friend of mine in the country, and she told me all about him. She's
exactly the opposite sort of person--or she wouldn't be my friend."

"I should think not, Miss Milton," said I admiringly.

"Oh, I should like to meet that man, and tell him what I think of
him!" said she. "Such men as he do more harm than a dozen agitators. So
contemptible, too!"

"It's revolting to think of," said I.

"I'm so glad you--" began Miss Milton, quite confidentially; I pulled
my chair a trifle closer, and cast an apparently careless glance towards
Mrs. Hilary. Suddenly I heard a voice behind me.

"Eh, what? Upon my honor it is! Why, Carter, my boy, how are you? Eh,
what? Miss Milton, too, I declare! Well, now, what a pity Annie didn't
come!"

I disagreed. I hate Annie. But I was very glad to see my friend and
neighbor, Robert Dinnerly. He's a sensible man--his wife's a little
prig.

"Oh, Mr. Dinnerly," cried Miss Milton, "how funny that you should come
just now? I was just trying to remember the name of a man Mrs. Dinnerly
told me about. I was telling Mr. Carter about him. You know him."

"Well, Miss Milton, perhaps I do. Describe him."

"I don't believe Annie ever told me his name, but she was talking about
him at our house yesterday."

"But I wasn't there, Miss Milton."

"No," said Miss Milton, "but he's got the next place to yours in the
country."

I positively leaped from my seat.

"Why, good gracious, Carter himself, you mean?" cried Dinnerly,
laughing. "Well, that is a good un--ha-ha-ha!"

She turned a stony glare on me.

"Do you live next to Mr. Dinnerly in the country?" she asked.

I would have denied it if Dinnerly had not been there. As it was, I blew
my nose.

"I wonder," said Miss Milton, "what has become of Aunt Emily."

"Miss Milton," said I, "by a happy chance you have enjoyed a luxury. You
have told the man what you think of him."

"Yes," said she; "and I have only to add that he is also a hypocrite."

Pleasant, wasn't it? Yet Mrs. Hilary says it was my fault. That's a
woman all over!

THE LITTLE WRETCH

Seeing that little Johnny Tompkins was safely out of the country, under
injunctions to make a new man of himself, and to keep that new man, when
made, at the Antipodes, I could not see anything indiscreet in touching
on the matter in the course of conversation with Mrs. Hilary Musgrave.
In point of fact, I was curio