under-clap that comes on Gusty's brow," the
good lady would say. "And what I'm so terrified of is that if he and the
captain meet they'll do each other a serious mischief. My poor child,
she is the innocent cause, Well, well, she has been much sought after."

When Beatrice asked the Bells to become her bride's-maids, Mrs. Bell
thought the time had arrived to let bygones be bygones, and to accept
the proffered honor.

"It was the captain's wish, I make no doubt," she said to her husband;
"he knew he hadn't a chance of winning the girl on whom his heart was
set, but he thought, at least, he might have the pleasure of seeing her
at his wedding, and, so to speak, looking his last on her. It's my
belief, too, that he'll relieve his feelings by giving Matty a very
beautiful present. She must hide it from Gusty, though; Gusty is so
terrible in the jealous excess of his feelings."

As Beatrice had insisted on giving her bride's-maids their dresses,
no difficulty could be experienced on that head, and the Bells,
notwithstanding that stormy period which had gone before, enjoyed
themselves immensely during the brief season of Beatrice's engagement.

Mrs. Bell certainly was happy during this time. If Matty was not engaged
to Bertram she soon would be to a better man. Gusty Jenkins, as she
invariably called him, was, of course, the better man now in her eyes.
The three girls were being supplied with new and lovely dresses, in
which Mrs. Bell assured her husband they'd look like angels wafted down
fresh from the skies--for the occasion. When she said this, Bell did not
agree with her, but that was not of the slightest consequence.

Mrs. Bell also during these happy weeks was making a little secret hoard
of money, which further considerably added to the good lady's felicity.

That young visitor of the Bell's, Miss Hart, proved herself a most
unobtrusive and retiring person. She was strangely reserved, no doubt,
and would reveal none of the secret which she had dimly alluded to on
the night of her arrival to Mrs. Bell, but she was chatty and pleasant
enough to the girls when quite alone with them. She put them up to many
small wrinkles with regard to their toilette, and insisted on dressing
Matty's hair in a way which made it look both thick and becoming. When
the Bells were quite alone she was present at their meals where she
quite subjugated the hearts of Bell and his son, Albert. But when
visitors appeared at the hospitable boa