Nothing special,
as far as I could tell. Wednesday.--Miss E. walked with Master Dick to
the village after lessons. Went into Miss Meldreth's shop to buy sweets,
but did not stay more than a few minutes. Passed the Rectory gate; Mr.
E. came running after them with a book. I was near enough to see Miss E.
color up beautiful at the sight of him. They did not talk much together.
In the afternoon Miss E. rode over to Whitminster with the General.
After tea---- ' Yes, I see," said Mrs. Vane, suddenly stopping
short--"there is nothing more of any importance."

She lay silent for a time, with her finger between the pages of the
note-book. Parker waited, trembling, not daring to speak until she was
spoken to.

"Take your book," said Mrs. Vane at last, "and be careful. No, you need,
not go into ecstasies"--seeing from Parker's clasped hands that she was
about to utter a word of gratitude. "I shall keep you no longer than you
are useful to me--do you understand? Go on following Miss Vane; I want
to know whom she sees, where she goes, what she does--if possible, what
she talks about. Does she get letters--letters, I mean beside those that
come in the post-bag?"

"I don't know, ma'am."

"Make it your business to know, then. You can go;" and Flossy turned
away her face, so as not to see Parker's rather blundering exit.

"The woman is a fool," she said to herself contemptuously, when Parker
had gone; "but I think she is--so far--a faithful fool. These women who
have made a muddle of their lives are admirable tools; they are always
so afraid of being found out;" and Flossy smiled cynically, although at
the same moment she was conscious that she shared the peculiarity of the
woman of whom she spoke--she also was afraid of being found out.

She had come across Parker before her marriage, when she was in
Scotland. The woman had then been detected in theft and in an intrigue
with one of the grooms, and had been ignominiously dismissed from
service; but Flossy had chosen to seek her out and befriend her--not
from any charitable motive, but because she saw in the discarded maid a
person whom it might be useful to have at beck and call. Parker's
bedridden mother was dependent upon her; and her one fear in life was
that this mother should get to know her true story and be deprived of
support. Upon this fear Mrs. Vane traded very skilfully; and, having
installed Parker in the place of lady's-maid to herself and her
husband's niece, she