e nothing to fear from me,' Jerrie
replied.

This was a grain of comfort to the girl who had been weak enough to
waste her affections upon Tom Tracy, and who, fearing Jerrie was a
rival, was weak enough to hope that with her out of the way she might
eventually succeed in bringing him to her feet, for she knew his
fondness for money, and knew, too, that she should in all probability be
one day the heiress to a million. So great was her infatuation for the
man who had never shown her the slightest attention, that even his
flowers, though second-hand, and not intended for her, were everything
to her, and when she packed her trunk that night she put them carefully
away in many wrappings of paper, to be brought out at home in the
privacy of her own room, and kept as long as the least beauty or perfume
remained.

It was a merry party which the New York train carried to Shannondale the
next day, and Jerrie was the merriest and gayest of them all, bandying
jokes and jests, and coquetting pretty equally with the young men, until
neither Tom, nor Dick, nor Billy quite knew what he was doing or saying.
But always in her gayest moods, when her eyes were brightest and her wit
the keenest, there was in Jerrie's heart a thought of Harold, who had so
disappointed her, and a wonder as to the nature of the _job_ which had
been of sufficient importance to keep him from Vassar.

'Shingling a roof, and Maude is helping him,' Billy said, 'I wonder what
he meant?' she was thinking, when she heard Ann Eliza cry out, that the
towers of 'Le Bateau' were visible.

As she had not seen that wonderful structure since its completion, she
arose from her seat, and going to the window, looked out upon the
massive pile in the distance, looking, with its turrets, and towers, and
round projections, like some old castle rather than a home where people
could live and be happy.

'It is very grand,' she said to Ann Eliza; and Billy, who was leaning
toward her, replied:

'Yes, too grand for a Pe-Peterkin. It wants you, there, Jerrie, as its
m-m-master-p-p-piece, and, by Jove, you can b-be there, too, if you
will!'

No one heard this attempt at an offer but Jerrie, who, with a saucy toss
of the head, replied, laughingly:

'Thank you, Billy. I'll think of it, and let you know when I make up my
mind to come. Just now I prefer the cottage in the lane to any spot on
earth. Oh, here, we are at the station,' she cried, as the train shot
round a curve and Sh