se Mr. Hazard. I don't think he is going to be pleased."

"Now what mischief are you brewing, Aunt Sarah? I am Hazard's friend,
and bound to see him through. Don't make me a party to any scheme
against him!"

"You are not very bright, George, and just now you are rather
ridiculous, because you do not in the least know what you are about."

"Go on!" said Strong with irrepressible good nature. "Play out all your
trumps and let my suit in!"

"Could you be ready to start for Niagara by to-morrow morning?" asked
his aunt.

"To-morrow is Saturday. Yes! I could manage it."

"Could you get some pleasant man to go with you?"

"Not much chance!" he replied. "I might ask Wharton, but he is very
busy."

"Try for him! I will send you a note to your club early this evening to
say whether I shall want you or not. If I make you go, I shall go too,
and take Esther and Catherine."

"I will do any thing you want," said Strong, "on condition that you tell
me what you are about."

Mrs. Murray looked at her nephew with a pitying air, and said:

"Any one with common sense might see that Esther's engagement never
could come to any thing."

"But you are trying to hold her to it."

"I am trying to do no such thing. I expect Esther to dismiss him; then
she will need some change of scene, and I mean to take her away."

"To-day?" asked Strong in alarm.

"To-day or to-morrow! Sooner or later! We have got to be ready for it
at any moment. Now do you understand?"

"I think I am beginning to catch on," replied Strong with a grave face.
"I wish I were out of the scrape."

"I told you never to get into it," rejoined his aunt.

"Poor Hazard!" muttered George, wondering whether he could do anything
to ward off this last blow from his friend.

Even as he spoke, the crisis was at hand. Mrs. Murray's calculations
were exact. While Hazard had been arranging with Strong the plan for
getting Esther away from New York, letting the engagement remain
private, Esther, in a state of feverish restlessness was wearying
Catherine with endless discussion of her trouble. Even Catherine felt
that, one way or the other, it was time for this thing to stop. Esther
had passed the stage of self-submission, and was in a mutinous mood. She
had given up the effort to reconcile herself with her situation, and yet
could talk of nothing but Hazard, until Catherine's good-nature was
sorely tried.

"I never was such a bore till now," said Esther at length, as