nt stock companies,
strictly limited--she liked him well enough. It was something to her, in
her monotonous life under the eye of her mother, who almost never left
her alone, and who cut off all chance for communication with August--it
was something to have the unobtrusive attentions of Mr. Humphreys, who
always interested her with his adventures. For indeed it really seemed
that he had had more adventures than any dozen other men. How should a
simple-hearted girl understand him? How should she read the riddle of a
life so full of duplicity--of _multiplicity_--as the life of Joshua
Humphreys, the music-teacher? Humphreys intended to make love to her,
but during the first two weeks he only aimed to gain her esteem. He felt
that there was a clue which he had not got. But at last the key dropped
into his hands, and he felt sure that the unsophisticated girl was in
his power.

Among the girls that attended Humphreys's singing-school was Betsey
Malcolm, the near neighbor of the Andersons. The singing-master often
saw her at Mr. Anderson's, and he often wished that Julia were as easy
to win as he felt Betsey to be. The sensuous mouth, the giddy eyes of
Betsey, showed quickly her appreciation of every flattering attention he
paid her, and though in Julia's presence he was careful how he treated
her, yet when he, walking down the road one day, alone, met her, he
courted her assiduously. He had not to observe any caution in her case.
She greedily absorbed all the flattery he could give, only pettishly
responding after a while: "O dear! that's the way you talk to me, and
that's the way you talk to Jule sometimes, I s'pose. I guess she don't
mind keeping two of you as strings to her bow."

"Two! What do you mean, my fair friend? I havn't seen one, yet."

"Oh, no! You mean you haven't seen two. You see one whenever you look in
the glass. The other is a Dutchman, and she's dying after him. She may
flirt with you, but her mother watches her night and day, to keep her
from running off with Gus Wehle."

Like many another crafty person, Betsey Malcolm had fairly overshot the
mark. In seeking to separate Humphreys from Julia, she had given him the
clue he desired, and he was not slow to use it, for he was almost the
only person that Mrs. Anderson trusted alone with Julia.

In the dusk of the evening of the very day of his talk with Betsey, he
sat on the long front-porch with Julia. Julia liked him better, or
rather did not dislike h