er workin' around Miss
Squiers's place many a time, and she didn't seem to 'mount to much, even
then. One day she stole a di'mond ring off'n old Miss Squiers and dug
out, and I told Nancy then--Nancy's young Miss Squiers--that I'd always
had my suspicions of the hussy. She hid the ring in a vase on the mantle
and they found it after she was gone."

"Well, well! I didn't know that about her," said the man, looking with
admiration at Mrs. Hopkins.

"That's why I told 'Rast not to have any truck with her, when she came
here bright and early one morning and asked for work."

"Oh, she came here, did she?"

"While I was gettin' breakfast. She said her name was Eliza Parsons, an'
she was looking fer a job. I told her I knew her record an' to get out,
and while we was arguin' 'Rast come out and took a hand in the talk. She
laughed and flirted with him outrageous, and said she was a stranger in
these parts, when I'd seen her many a time at Miss Squiers's."

"What was her name then?" asked the man.

"I think it was Rosie--or Lucy, or something--. Anyhow, it wasn't Eliza,
and that I'll swear to. But the girl laughed at me and made such silly
smiles at 'Rast that he told me to shut up, 'cause he had a use for her
in politics."

"Well, well!" repeated the visitor. "Just see how stories get twisted. I
heard you gave the girl a letter to your cousin Martha."

"Well, I did. 'Rast wanted to get her in at Elmhurst, to watch what
Forbes was doing to defeat him, so he made me write the letter. But
how'd you know so much about this girl?" she inquired, with sudden
suspicion.

"Me? I only know what Mr. Hopkins told me. I'm one of his confidential
men. But he never said how he happened to find the girl, or what he knew
about her."

"He didn't know nothing. He'd never seen her 'till that morning when she
came here. But he said she was clever, and she is, if pertness and a
ready tongue counts for cleverness. I suppose he pays her for what she
tells him about Forbes, but he'd better save his money and fight on the
square. I don't like this tricky politics, an' never did."

"I don't either," declared the man. "But I'm in it, and can't get out."

"That's what 'Rast says. But some day they'll put him out, neck and
crop, if he ain't careful."

"Is the girl Eliza much use to him?"

"I can't say. He drove her over to Elmhurst that morning, and he drives
over two or three evenings a week to meet her on the sly and get her
report. That