njured; "I
suppose you are well known in society there?"

He smiled and still caressed his chin. "So so," he said,
indifferently.

"Edward!"--the spinster could not suppress the question that was heavy
on her mind--"were you ever engaged to a lady in Baltimore?"

He turned his blue eyes upon her in mild surprise. "Never," he said,
nonchalantly.

She looked somewhat relieved, but still anxious, and the man, after
eyeing her for a moment, placing one hand firmly upon her own, said,
in a tone that was half caress, half command,

"Ellen, you have been listening to gossip about me. Now, let me hear
the whole story, for I see it has troubled you, and I will not have
that."

She, glad to unburden her mind, told him what Celine had said. Perhaps
Celine had counted upon this, and was making, of the unconscious Mr.
Percy, a tool that should serve her in just the way that he did. At
all events, while he listened to the spinster, he assured himself that
if the French maid were not, for some reason, an enemy, she was
certainly a meddler, and that she must quit Miss Arthur's service.

He said nothing to this end that evening. But he fully satisfied Miss
Arthur that he was not the person referred to by the girl. And to
guard against further inquiries or accidents, he told her of several
men of the name of Percy, who were much in society, and might be, any
one of them, the man in question.

And his _fiance_ was calmed and happy once more.

She was as clay in the potter's hands, and Mr. Percy found it an easy
matter to convince her, a few days later, that her invaluable maid was
not the proper person to have about her. Accordingly, one fine
morning, Celine was informed, in the spinster's loftiest manner, that
her services were no longer desired, and a month's wages were tendered
her, with the assurance that Miss Arthur "had not been blind to her
sly ways, and trickery, and that she had only retained her until she
could suit herself better."

Celine took her _conge_ in demure silence, and sought Mrs. Arthur
forthwith. Cora was really glad that she could at last command the
girl, for many reasons, and they quickly came to an understanding.

Great was the surprise and inward wrath of the spinster when, within
ten minutes from the time Celine had left her presence, a maid without
a mistress, she appeared again before her, and laying upon the
dressing case the month's wages she had received in lieu of a warning,
said:

"Made