ad played him a trick, but there seemed no other
resource than to fulfill his agreement. With Mrs. Mumpson in the
house, there might be less difficulty in securing and keeping a hired
girl who, with Jane, might do the essential work. But the future
looked so unpromising that even the strong coffee could not sustain his
spirits. The hopefulness of the early morning departed, leaving
nothing but dreary uncertainty.

Mrs. Mumpson was bent upon accompanying him to town and engaging the
girl herself. "There would be great propriety in my doing so," she
argued at dinner, "and propriety is something that adorns all the human
race. There would be no danger of my getting any of the peculiar
females such as you have been afflicted with. As I am to superintend
her labors, she will look up to me with respect and humility if she
learns from the first to recognize in me a superior on whom she will be
dependent for her daily bread. No shiftless hussy would impose upon
ME. I would bring home--how sweet the word sounds!--a model of
industry and patient endurance. She would be deferential, she would
know her place, too. Everything would go like clockwork in our home.
I'll put on my things at once and--"

"Excuse me, Mrs. Mumpson. It would not be right to leave Jane here
alone. Moreover, I'd rather engage my own help."

"But my dear Mr. Holcroft, you don't realize--men never do
realize--that you will have a long, lonely ride with a female of
unknown--unknown antercedents. It will be scarcely respecterble, and
respecterbility should be man and woman's chief aim. Jane is not a
timid child, and in an emergency like this, even if she was, she would
gladly sacrifice herself to sustain the proprieties of life. Now that
your life has begun under new and better auspices, I feel that I ought
to plead with you not to cloud your brightening prospects by a
thoughtless unregard of what society looks upon as proper. The eyes of
the community will now be upon us--"

"You must excuse me, Mrs. Mumpson. All I ask of the community is to
keep their eyes on their own business, while I attend to mine in my own
way. The probabilities are that the girl will come out on the stage
Monday," and he rose from the dinner table and hastily made his
preparations for departure. He was soon driving rapidly away, having a
sort of nervous apprehension lest Jane, or the widow, should suddenly
appear on the seat beside him. A basket of eggs and some inferi