omise to pay.''

'She has too much character, and not of the right sort. There is no
womanliness about her.'

'You women are always hard on your own sex. She'll have to manage Joe,
and she'll need to be half man to do that. I think I had better write
her to come here. I can tell what she is when I see her. I can read a
woman like a book.'

There was a slight twinkle in my wife's eyes when I said this, and she
made some further objections, but I overruled them; and, on the
following morning, dispatched a letter, inviting Miss Walley to the
city.

Returning to my office from ''Change,' one afternoon, a few days
afterward, I found a lady awaiting me. She rose as I entered, and gave
her name as Miss Walley. She was prepossessing and lady-like in
appearance, and there was a certain ease and self-possession in her
manner, which I was surprised to see in one directly from a remote
country town. She wore a plain gray dress, with a cape of the same
material; a straw hat, neatly trimmed with brown ribbon, and, on the
inside, a bunch of deep pink flowers, which gave a slight coloring to
her otherwise pale and sallow but intellectual face. Her whole dress
bespoke refinement and taste. She was tall and slender, with an almost
imperceptible stoop in the shoulders, indicative of a studious habit;
but you forgot this seeming defect in her easy and graceful movements.
Her brown hair was combed plainly over a rather low and narrow forehead;
her face was long and thin, and her small, clear gray eyes were shaded
by brown eyebrows meeting together, and, when she was talking earnestly,
or listening attentively, slightly contracting, and deepening her keen
and thoughtful expression. Her nose was long and rather prominent; and
her mouth and chin were large, showing character and will; but their
masculine expression was relieved by a short upper lip, which displayed
to full advantage the finest set of teeth I ever saw.

Referring at once to the object of her visit, she handed me a number of
credentials, highly commendatory of her character and ability as a
teacher. I glanced over them, and assured her they were satisfactory.
She then questioned me as to the compensation she would receive, and the
position of the family needing her services. Answering these inquiries,
I added that I was prepared to engage her on the terms I had named.

'I have been in receipt of the same salary as assistant in a school in
my native village, sir,' she repl