n to her sister.

"Violet, I am scandalized----" she began, when that young lady
interrupted her.

"There is no need, I assure you, Belle," she said, coldly. "I confess I
would have preferred that you did not see us just as you did, but I have
been guilty of nothing which should cause you to feel scandalized. We
may as well understand each other first as last, and you may as well
make up your mind to the inevitable, for, if I live, I shall marry
Wallace Richardson. If I cannot do so legally until I am of age, I shall
wait until then, and you know, Belle, when I take a stand like this, I
mean it."

With this parting shaft Violet, with uplifted head and flashing eyes,
walked deliberately from her sister's presence and up to her own room.

"The little vixen will do it, Belle, as sure as you live," remarked
Wilhelm Mencke, who had returned to the drawing-room in season to catch
the latter portion of Violet's remarks.

"She shall not!" cried his wife, angrily. "Marry that low-born carpenter
who has to labor with his hands for daily bread! Never!"

"I do not see how you are going to help it; you know she has the grit of
a dozen common women in that small body, and a will of iron," replied
Mr. Mencke.

"Then I'll break her will! I came of a resolute stock, too, and it will
be Roman against Roman, with the advantage on my side. She shall never
compromise herself, nor us, by any such misalliance."

Mr. Mencke looked a trifle sheepish at this spirited speech. He could
not forget, if his wife did, that some fourteen years previous he had
been as badly off, if not worse, than this young carpenter. He had been
a laborer in the employ of Miss Belle Huntington's father, and she had
not felt that she was compromising herself or her parents by marrying
him, and the wealthy pork-packer's daughter had run away with the man
whom she loved.

"What will you do to prevent it?" he asked, after a few moments of
awkward silence. "The girl can marry him any day if she takes a notion;
the will says we are to be the guardians of the property 'until she is
twenty-one or marries.' It would make it rather awkward for me if she
should, for her husband would have the right to demand her fortune,
and--Belle, the duse would be to pay if I should lose my hold on that
money."

"What is the matter, Will?" demanded Mrs. Mencke looking startled.

"Hum--nothing much, only--it is so mixed up with my own affairs it would
cripple me to have to fork i