ale mouth.

"I shall write no more," said the lips, when they opened, "until I have
seen her and heard the reason for my rejection. I will discover who my
enemy is. I will unmask the man or the woman that has done me this
injury. Till then, I shall write no more. No, not one line."

Mr. Gouger was nonplussed by the new turn in affairs. He knew that Weil
had some basis for what he said, that he was not the man to come with
pretence on his tongue. Neither of the other persons in the room paid
the least attention to him, any more than if he had not been present. It
was like a play, at which Gouger was the only spectator.

"Could you bear it if I brought her to you to-day, if I brought her here
now?" asked Archie, beseechingly. "If I go and get her, and she comes
with me, will the shock harm you?"

The ironical smile deepened on the face of the younger man.

"Play out your farce," he said.

Casting one look of apprehension at Roseleaf, Mr. Weil turned toward
the door that entered the hallway. Before he could reach it, a female
form came into the room and caught his arm. Together they faced the
recumbent figure in the chair. This lasted but a moment. Then Daisy
broke from her escort and threw herself at her lover's feet.

"Come," whispered Archie, to the critic. "Let us leave them alone."

CHAPTER XX.

LIKE A STUCK PIG.

Hannibal was neither better nor worse, morally, because his color was
black. There are men with white complexions who would have done exactly
as he did. There are others as dark as Erebus who would have done
nothing of the sort.

He was no ordinary negro. His intelligence was above the average. When
he first entered the employ of Mr. Fern, that gentleman took every pains
to encourage the aptitude for learning that he found in him. Hannibal
accompanied his employer to his office, where he was entrusted with
important commissions, which he seemed for a long time to execute with
faithfulness and discrimination. At home he performed his duties in a
way that gave great satisfaction. At the end of the first six months Mr.
Fern would have hated to part with a servant that he believed difficult
to replace.

But the great source of trouble arose gradually. Hannibal began to
entertain a sentiment for his master's younger daughter that was
impossible of fruition. Daisy treated him in the most considerate
manner, never dreaming what was going on behind his serious brow.
Millicent, ungovernable in