ion of the unhappy spinster.

The lady having retired to her dressing-room to relieve her feelings
and repair damages, a scene was enacted in which the lady did the
histrionics and the maid apologized and giggled alternately, until the
one had exhausted her anthem of wrath and the other her accompaniment
of penitence and giggles.

Then a truce was patched up, which lasted for several days.

Celine had advanced to the verge of disrespect, when speaking of Mr.
Percy, on more than one occasion. Several times she had said that he
"had a familiar look," and she fancied she had seen him somewhere. But
she had always checked herself on the very border-land of
impertinence, and never had been able to tell if she really had before
seen the gentleman or no.

But she had put the spinster on the defensive, and had also excited
her curiosity.

During this time Mrs. John Arthur was slowly dropping into her _role_
of invalid. First, she gave up her habitual walks about the grounds
and on the terrace. Then, her drives became too fatiguing. Next, she
found herself too languid to appear at breakfast, and that meal was
served in her room. She was not ill, she protested; only a trifle
indisposed. Let no one be at all concerned for her; she should be as
well as usual in a few days. And Celine, who was very sympathetic, and
was the first to suggest that a physician be consulted, was laughingly
assured that if madame were sick, she, Celine, should be her head
nurse.

Mrs. Arthur had been absent from the family breakfast table for two
days, when Miss Arthur met with a fresh grievance at the hands of
Celine.

Celine had been unusually garrulous, and had been regaling her
mistress with descriptions of the great people, and the magnificent
toilets she had seen, while with some of her former _miladis_.
Suddenly she dropped the subject of a grand ball which had transpired
in Baltimore, where her mistress was the guest of the honorable
somebody, to exclaim:

"It has just come to me, mademoiselle, where I must have seen Monsieur
Percy. It was in Baltimore, and they said--" Here she became much
confused, and pretended to be fully occupied with the folds of her
mistress's dress.

Miss Arthur looked down upon her sharply, and asked, "What did they
say?"

Celine stammered: "Oh, it was only gossip, mademoiselle; nothing worth
repeating, I assure you."

The curiosity and jealousy of the spinster were fully aroused. "Don't
attempt any subte