glance of her proud,
beautiful face. She expressed supreme satisfaction with Clemence's mode
of instruction, and the children worshipped their young teacher.

With all her care and responsibility, had it not been for her anxiety in
her mother's behalf, this long, golden summer would have been one long
to be remembered for its simple pleasures and calm enjoyments. The days
passed quickly.

"Can it be possible," said Clemence to herself one day, as she took her
hat and shawl, and put them on absently, "that I have been in Mrs.
Vaughn's employment three months?" She looked at the crisp bank notes
that lay in her hand, in payment of her first quarter's salary. "I
consider myself a young lady of some importance, or, perhaps, I should
say 'young woman,' now that I am a working member of society." She
laughed aloud at her own thoughts. "Well, I am proud of the privilege,"
she mused, "and can take pleasure in the thought that I am an
'independent unity,' I never felt so strong-minded in my life."

A tawdry, ill-kempt female figure was shuffling slowly by the stately
Vaughn mansion, as Clemence tripped down the steps, and two envious
black eyes noted the happy smile upon her face.

"How d'ye do, Miss Graystone," said a harsh voice. "Ain't too big to
speak to a body, are you, cause you happen to be among 'ristocrats?"

Clemence turned and immediately recognized Mrs. Bailey, an elderly
woman, who lodged beneath the same humble roof to which her own
straitened circumstances had consigned her with her parent.

"Good afternoon, Mrs. Bailey," she said politely, "I did not observe you
before."

"He! he!" giggled the old lady spitefully, "my eyes are sharp, if I am
old. May be, now, if I was a fine gentleman, like the one with yonder
lady, I would not be so easily overlooked?"

She stretched out her long arm, and looking in the direction in which
she pointed, Clemence beheld, to her horror and dismay, Mrs. Vaughn, and
beside her the gentleman who had been so kind to her, and had seemed to
take such a friendly interest in her success with her little pupils.
They had not yet been observed, and there was still time for the
mortified girl to make her escape unseen. The first impulse of her mind
was to excuse herself to her eccentric companion, and turn quickly a
convenient corner.

"But," she thought, "I should hurt this good woman's feelings, and lose
my own self-respect by such a course. Clemence Graystone, what are these
peop