ther
arm of his chair. "Eh!" he said; then, in a meditative tone, "That is
so,--there is Audrey."

"If he has eyes, he'll see that for himself," retorted Mistress Deborah
tartly. "'More to the purpose,' he'll say, 'where is the money that I
gave you for her?'"

"Why, it's gone," answered Darden "Gone in maintenance,--gone in meat and
drink and raiment. He didn't want it buried. Pshaw, Deborah, he has quite
forgot his fine-lady plan! He forgot it years ago, I'll swear."

"I'll send her now on an errand to the Widow Constance's," said the
mistress of the house. "Then before he comes again I'll get her a gown"--

The minister brought his hand down upon the table. "You'll do no such
thing!" he thundered. "The girl's got to be here when he comes. As for her
dress, can't she borrow from you? The Lord knows that though only the wife
of a poor parson, you might throw for gewgaws with a bona roba! Go trick
her out, and bring her here. I'll attend to the wine and the books."

When the door opened again, and Audrey, alarmed and wondering, slipped
with the wind into the room, and stood in the sunshine before the
minister, that worthy first frowned, then laughed, and finally swore.

"'Swounds, Deborah, your hand is out! If I hadn't taken you from service,
I'd swear that you were never inside a fine lady's chamber. What's the
matter with the girl's skirt?"

"She's too tall!" cried the sometime waiting woman angrily. "As for that
great stain upon the silk, the wine made it when you threw your tankard at
me, last Sunday but one."

"That manteau pins her arms to her sides," interrupted the minister
calmly, "and the lace is dirty. You've hidden all her hair under that
mazarine, and too many patches become not a brown skin. Turn around,
child!"

While Audrey slowly revolved, the guardian of her fortunes, leaning back
in his chair, bent his bushy brows and gazed, not at the circling figure
in its tawdry apparel, but into the distance. When she stood still and
looked at him with a half-angry, half-frightened face, he brought his
bleared eyes to bear upon her, studied her for a minute, then motioned to
his wife.

"She must take off this paltry finery, Deborah," he announced. "I'll have
none of it. Go, child, and don your Cinderella gown."

"What does it all mean?" cried Audrey, with heaving bosom. "Why did she
put these things upon me, and why will she tell me nothing? If Hugon has
hand in it"--

The minister made a gesture of