he is so inquisitive!" she remarked.

"Yes, and the most despicable character on earth to me, is a person
whose chief object in life is gossip! why, life is too short to take
care of our own affairs in! I wish you would leave her, and come and
room with me!" exclaimed Cyn indignantly.

"Mrs. Simonson would not dare have me. She is afraid of Miss Kling, you
know. But I wish I might, for I am tired of being here," Nattie replied
discontentedly.

"Well, we will have our wire at all events, and for once something shall
be that Miss Kling will not know," said Cyn exultantly.

Unconsciously the dreaded individual favored them, shortly after, by
going to spend the evening with friends after her own heart--very
genteel, but in reduced circumstances:--and as the instruments were all
ready, and they had only been waiting for her absence, Clem went to
work. He was assisted by the willing Jo, who argued that running a wire
was solid work, and _not_ romantic, and by Quimby, who viewed the
arrangement as another formidable link in the chain of his rival, and
clamored wildly for a "telephone," because "anybody could use a
telephone." But that, as Clem said, was exactly what they did not want!
Consequently Quimby, as he lent his aid, felt himself a very martyr.
However, he was, by this time, "used to it, you know,"--as he would have
said--having viewed himself in that light since his unwitting
resurrection of "C." Still, he sometimes fancied he saw a dim light
shining ahead through the gloom--a hope that Clem might be fascinated by
Cyn. Many were, Quimby argued, so why should not Clem be? and certainly
he talked with her more than he did with Nattie!

In Nattie's room, they placed the instruments on a small shelf put up
for the purpose, just outside her closet, and run the wire through the
closet into the hall outside, and thence along, so close to the wall
that it was not noticeable, except to those who knew, and then into Mrs.
Simonson's apartments. Here, no concealment was necessary, as Mrs.
Simonson had been informed of the plan, and, although trembling lest the
vials of Miss Kling's wrath would be poured on her head, should that
lady discover the arrangement, had no objections to offer, if they were
positive "the electricity on the wire would not wear out the carpet, or
injure the table"--which was the terminus in Quimby and Clem's room.

Having satisfied her on this point, they deemed it expedient not to show
her the batter