cter, prolonged
beyond the usual date, was dropping rapidly into the irrecoverable
conditions of the past.

It chanced that they both took quarters in the same hotel; and great
was Bertha's astonishment; on her first morning visit to the Congress
Spring, to find Professor Hurlbut quietly quaffing his third glass. He
looked so much like a gentleman; he was really so fresh and rosy, so
genuinely masculine in comparison with the blase youths she was
accustomed to see, that, forgetting his occupation, she acknowledged
his bow with a cordiality which provoked herself the moment afterward.
Mr. Bartlett was so much encouraged by this recognition that he
ventured to walk beside her on their return to the hotel. She, having
in the impulsive frankness and forgetfulness of her nature returned his
greeting, felt bound to suffer the temporary companionship,
embarrassing though it was. Fortunately none of her friends were in
sight, nor was it probable that they knew the chiropodist in any case.
She would be rid of him at the hotel door, and would take good care to
avoid him in the future.

"How delightful it is here!" said Mr. Bartlett, thinking more of his
present position than of Saratoga in general.

An inclination of the head was her only reply.

"This is my first visit," he added; "and I can not conceive of a summer
society gayer or more inspiring."

"I have no doubt you will find it a very favorable place for your
business," said Bertha, maliciously recalling him to his occupation, as
she thought.

"Oh, I hope so!" exclaimed the innocent Bartlett. For was not his only
business in Saratoga the endeavour to make her acquaintance? And was
he not already in a fair way to be successful?

"Disgusting!" thought Bertha, as she suddenly turned and sprang up the
steps in front of the ladies' drawing-room. "He thinks of nothing but
his horrid corn-plaster, or whatever it is! I really believe he
suspects that I need his services. That such a man should be so brazen
a charlatan--it is monstrous!"

Such thoughts were not an auspicious commencement for the day, and
Bertha's friends remarked that she was not in her sunniest mood. She
was very careful, however, not to speak of her meeting with the
chiropodist; there would have been no end to her brother's banter. She
was also vexed that she could not forget his honest blue eyes, and the
full, splendid curves of his mouth. Indignation, she supposed, was her
predominant emot