hey showed how to tie up arteries, and then I slipped
out. Lots of the girls slip out in the horrid parts, you know. And then,
instead of waiting in the ante-room, I put on my wrap, and pulled the
hood over my head and ran off to the Midlothian--it's just around the
corner, you know. And I saw his wife."

"What was she like?" queried Esther, eagerly.

"Oh, I don't know. Sort of horrid--actressy. She had a pink silk wrapper
with swansdown all over it--at four o'clock, think! I was _awfully_
frightened when I got there; but it wasn't the least trouble. She hardly
looked at me, and she engaged me right off. She just asked me if I was
willing to do a whole lot of things--I forgot what they were--and where
I'd worked before. I said at Mrs. Barcalow's."

"Mrs. Barcalow's?"

"Why, yes--my Aunt Amanda, don't you know--up in Framingham. I always
have to wash the teacups when I go there. Aunty says that everybody has
got to do _something_ in _her_ house."

"Oh, Louise!" cried her friend, in shocked admiration; "how can you
think of such things?"

"Well, I did. And she--his wife, you know--just said: 'Oh, I suppose
you'll do as well as any one--all you girls are alike.'"

"But did she really take you for a--servant?"

"Why, yes, indeed. It was raining. I had that old ulster on, you know.
I'm to go at twelve o'clock next Saturday."

"But, Louise!" cried Esther, aghast, "you don't truly mean to go!"

"I do!" cried Louise, beaming triumphantly.

"_Oh, Louise!_"

"Now, listen, dear," said Miss Latimer, with the decision of an
enthusiastic young lady with New England blood in her veins. "Don't say
a word till I tell you what my plan is. I've thought it all out, and
you've got to help me."

Esther shuddered.

"You foolish child!" cried Louise. Her eyes were sparkling: she was in a
state of ecstatic excitement; she could see no obstacles to the
carrying out of her plan. "You don't think I mean to _stay_ there, do
you? I'm just going at twelve o'clock, and at four he comes back from
the matinee, and at five o'clock I'm going to slip on my things and run
downstairs, and have you waiting for me in the coupe, and off we go. Now
do you see?"

It took some time to bring Esther's less venturesome spirit up to the
point of assisting in this undertaking; but she began, after a while, to
feel the delights of vicarious enterprise, and in the end the two girls,
their cheeks flushed, their eyes shining feverishly, their voices
tre