o, but
going round the first corner, didn't I run right into Mary Mason
herself! I hadn't laid eyes on her for a couple of months. 'How d'ye do,
Mrs. Gemmell?' she said, for I stopped and stared at her as if she'd
been a white crow. 'What about "Darkest Africa?"' I found breath to
ask, though it was Darkest Chicago I had in my mind. 'I've done with
that now,' she said; 'did very well, too.' 'And what are you going to do
next?' 'I dunno. Whatever turns up. I've got an offer to go to Chicago
to sell a book there.' I caught her by the arm as if I'd been the chief
of police. 'Mary, will you please go to my house and wait there for me
till I come?' 'Oh, yes, mawm, if you want me to,' and off she went,
asking no questions.

"Well, Dave, I've put in four hours of amateur detective work this
afternoon, and I feel as if I needed a moral bath. I found out it was
all true, as the chief of police had said. There was a plot to ruin the
girl, and I don't think the author of it will forget his interview with
me in a hurry."

"What good will that do the young woman? There are plenty more of his
kind in the world, and with her inherited tendencies I suppose it's only
a question of time--how soon she goes to the bad."

"David Gemmell!"

It is worth while making a caustic speech occasionally to see Isabel
rise to her full height. Her brown eyes positively emit sparks, and her
gray hair, which she wears waved and parted, gives her an air of
distinction that would not be out of place upon an avenging spirit.

"I came home all tired out," she went on, sinking into the chair beside
mine, "and looking through the nursery window, there sat Mary Mason with
our little Chrissie on her knee. The two faces in the firelight looked
so much alike that my heart gave a great thump, and I vowed that girl
should never be set adrift again. This is the second time she has been
cast upon my shore, and I must see to her."

So Mary Mason dropped into our family circle without anybody having very
much to say in the matter--except my mother!

"Wha's yon 'at Eesabell's ta'en up wi' the noo?"

"Her name's Mason," said I; "Mary Mason."

"I h'ard yer wife was thinkin' o' keepin' a hoosemaid, but I didna
expeck tae see her pap hersel' doon at the table wi' the fem'ly."

"She's not a housemaid. She's just staying with us for a while."

"Ye'd think Eesabell micht hae eneugh adae wi' her ain, 'thoot takin' in
ony strangers."

"But Mary is to help with the