rer. Burton, who
had always professed such friendship for her! She would not stay another
moment in his house. There was a six-thirty train to the North, and she
and her misguided daughter would take it.

Crane began to see why Cora, for all her physical courage, dreaded a
disagreement with her mother. He himself felt as if an avalanche had
passed over him, leaving him alive but dazed.

Mrs. Falkener sat with her handkerchief pressed to her eyes, not so much
to wipe away her tears, for she was not crying, but to shut out the
sight of her perfidious young host.

"Be so kind," she directed from behind this veil, "as to give orders for
the packing of my trunks, and let Cora know that we are leaving
immediately."

Burton hesitated.

"I am afraid, since the housemaid has left, there isn't any one to pack
for you, Mrs. Falkener," he said. "Won't you delay your going until
to-morrow? I can't bear to have you leave me like this."

Mrs. Falkener shook her head.

"Call Solon," she said. "No, don't ask me to stay. And why, pray, can't
the cook make herself useful, for once?"

Mrs. Falkener was not, of course, in a position to know that Crane would
not at the moment stoop to ask any favor of Jane-Ellen. He was glad of
an excuse to escape, however, and summon Solon to take his place. He
found Smithfield in the hall and explained to him that the ladies were
called suddenly away, and then he himself walked down to the garage to
arrange for their departure.

When he came back he found the house in the sort of turmoil that only a
thoroughly executive woman in a bad temper can create. Smithfield, Cora
and Jane-Ellen seemed to be all together engaged in packing. Solon and
the new man were running up and down stairs with forgotten books and
coats and umbrellas, while Mrs. Falkener was exercising a general and
unflattering supervision of every one's activities. To say the new man
was running is inaccurate. Even Tucker's dignified celerity hardly
deserves such a word. But the new man, crippled and bent as he was,
attained only such velocity as was consistent with a perfectly stiff
left leg. Crane really felt he ought to interfere on his behalf, when he
saw him laboring downstairs with heavy bags and bundles. He probably
would have done so, had not his mind been distracted by coming
unexpectedly upon a little scene in the upper hall. Cora was trying to
press a fee into the hand of Jane-Ellen, and Jane-Ellen was refusing it.
Both w