distrust, fear, and hatred all were blended.

Judge Volney Bording, ornament to the legal profession, was a hearty
eater, and it was not long before he sent his plate for a second
helping, and again Clarissa heard from the closed lips of Leadbury, in
a voice that seemed to float up from his very feet:

"Next. Next. You're next, Miss Bording. What'll it be?"

Leadbury half rose, looking toward Clarissa with a glance of most
violent anger, but whatever he would have said, was again interrupted
by the silvery laugh of Miss Bording, and again Leadbury joined
heartily, almost boisterously. But though he regained his
self-possession and his brow became serene, Clarissa saw in his eye
that which told he had a reckoning in store for her when once the
guests were out of the house, but that in the meantime he would
dissemble the various unpleasant emotions with which his mind was
filled. The rest of the dinner passed without untoward event. The huge
armchair by imperceptible degrees retired to its former position, and
as Clarissa set down the dessert, she saw Asbury Fuller, with a grace
unusual and not to be expected of one in such a posture, proceeding
quickly and silently out of the room upon all-fours.

Mindful of her instructions, Clarissa accompanied the party when,
rising from the table, they withdrew to the drawing-room. It was
manifest that her presence caused Leadbury some uneasiness and he
looked now at her and now at his guests with an inquiring and
perturbed countenance, but in the calm faces of the judge and his
daughter he could detect nothing to indicate that they thought the
presence of the page at all strange, and little by little he recovered
his good spirits and related some interesting anecdotes of a bulldog
he once owned and of a colored person who stole a guitar from him. But
though Miss Bording gave a courteous and interested attention and
laughed at the anecdotes of the dog, she irked at the necessity of
silence, which the garrulity of her host placed her under and was
desirous of having the conversation become general and of a more
entertaining, elevated and instructive character. As the narration of
the episode of the colored person came to an end, she hastily
exclaimed:

"Captain, you promised to show us your collection. It is nearing the
time when we must go home, for father has had to-day to listen to an
unparalleled amount of gabble and is very tired."

"I will show the collection to you with