gul. She's down in the pahlor, waitin'."

"Well, of all the men!" cried Mrs. Lander. But she seemed to find
herself, upon reflection, less able to cope with Lander personally than
with the situation generally. "Will you send her up, Albe't?" she asked,
very patiently, as if he might be driven to further excesses, if not
delicately handled. As soon as he had gone out of the room she wished
that she had told him to give her time to dress and have her room put in
order, before he sent the child up; but she could only make the best of
herself in bed with a cap and a breakfast jacket, arranged with the help
of a handglass. She had to get out of bed to put her other clothes away
in the closet and she seized the chance to push the breakfast tray out of
the door, and smooth up the bed, while she composed her features and her
ideas to receive her visitor. Both, from long habit rather than from any
cause or reason, were of a querulous cast, and her ordinary tone was a
snuffle expressive of deep-seated affliction. She was at once plaintive
and voluable, and in moments of excitement her need of freeing her mind
was so great that she took herself into her own confidence, and found a
more sympathetic listener than when she talked to her husband. As she now
whisked about her room in her bed-gown with an activity not predicable of
her age and shape, and finally plunged under the covering and drew it up
to her chin with one hand while she pressed it out decorously over her
person with the other, she kept up a rapid flow of lamentation and
conjecture. "I do suppose he'll be right back with her before I'm half
ready; and what the man was thinkin' of to do such a thing anyway, I
don't know. I don't know as she'll notice much, comin' out of such a
lookin' place as that, and I don't know as I need to care if she did. But
if the'e's care anywhe's around, I presume I'm the one to have it. I
presume I did take a fancy to her, and I guess I shall be glad to see how
I like her now; and if he's only told her I want some sewin' done, I can
scrape up something to let her carry home with her. It's well I keep my
things where I can put my hand on 'em at a time like this, and I don't
believe I shall sca'e the child, as it is. I do hope Albe't won't hang
round half the day before he brings her; I like to have a thing ova."

Lander wandered about looking for the girl through the parlors and the
piazzas, and then went to the office to ask what had become