cond door," she muttered to herself.

As she reached it she paused abruptly. It was slightly ajar. Glancing in
hesitatingly, she saw that it looked more like a young lady's _boudoir_
than an ordinary breakfast-room. Before a mirror at the further end of
the apartment sat a young girl in the sun-light. A maid was brushing out
the wavy masses of her warm-tinted auburn hair.

While Jessie was hesitating as to whether she should tap on the door
and make her presence known or walk on further through the corridor, a
conversation which she could not help overhearing, held her spell-bound,
fairly rooted to the spot.

"I assure you it is quite true, Janet," the lovely young girl was saying
in a very fretful, angry voice. "The old lady has got a companion in the
house at last. But she shall not stay long beneath this roof depend upon
that, Janet. She is young and very beautiful.

"I would not care so much, if it were not that the handsome grandson is
expected to arrive every day."

"Surely, Miss Rosamond, you, with all your beauty, do not fear a rival
in the little humble companion."

"Companions have been known to do a great deal of mischief before now,
and, as I have said, the girl is remarkably pretty. I saw her from the
library window as she was coming up the front steps, and then, when old
Mrs. Bassett came down to the library, I was safely ensconced behind the
silken draperies of the bay-window, and I heard all that was said. You
may be sure that I was angry enough. She shall not stay here long, if I
can help it. I will make it so unpleasant for her that she will be glad
to go. I detest the girl already, on general principles."

Jessie Bain cowered back, dazed and bewildered, almost doubting her own
senses as to what she had just heard.

Smarting with bitter pain, Jessie turned away and hurried swiftly down
the corridor in the opposite direction.

She was quickly retracing her steps back to her own room, when she met
Harriet again in the corridor.

"I was just coming for you, miss," she said, "thinking that you might
not be able to find your way, after all, there are so many twists and
turns hereabouts," and without further ado she quickly retraced her
steps, nodding to Jessie to follow.

The breakfast-room into which she was ushered was by far the most
commodious room in the house.

A great, square apartment with ceilings and panelings of solid oak,
massive side-boards, which contained the family silver for f