nished putting up the morning paper for them containing a
full and carefully-marked account of the defalcation and disappearance
of a bank-president in Delaware in whom she recognized the brother of
her former hostess, when Ethel looked in at the door and said, "Oh, you
are here," and, coming forward, gave her the dreadful news. It was well
that this final mark of her gratitude and graceful interest was complete
down to the very postage-stamp, for after this Mrs. Sykes had no time
for delicate attentions.

"Stand off! good heavens! Don't come near me. Get away!" she shrieked,
and for once every particle of color left her face. The next moment she
rushed up-stairs to her room, put on her bonnet and cloak in a flash,
and, without farewells of any kind, or thought of so much as her darling
Bobo, left the house immediately. She went first, and that as fast as
her feet could carry her, to the nearest druggist's, where she invested
lavishly in disinfectants and hung innumerable camphor-bags about her
person. From there she went to the nearest hotel, from which she wrote
to the Browns, giving instructions about her luggage, which she said
must be packed by Parsons and sent over to England, to be unpacked at
Liverpool, for fear of infection, by "a person" whom she would engage.
She then took the first steamer leaving New York, and when she got on
board gave vent to a perfectly sincere and devout exclamation, "Thank
heaven, I have done with America!" From Liverpool she wrote back a
lively account of the passage, and expressed the deepest interest in
"dear Miss Noel," about whom she had been "quite wretched," but who she
"hoped was doing nicely by this time and would make a good recovery."
She also hoped, and even more earnestly, that "dearest Bobo was not
being neglected in the general hubbub, and given his biscuits without
their being properly soaked first, and his chicken in great pieces, not
carefully minced," and begged that every care should be taken of him,
imploring that everybody would remember that "_hot_ milk invariably made
the poor dear ill." She also sent Bijou a small and particularly hideous
pin-cushion, which she said had been made for the Ashantee Bazaar by the
Grand Duchess of Aufstadt.

The defection of Mrs. Sykes was not greatly deplored by anybody, but it
was deeply resented by Parsons, who it is to be feared was not as
devoted to Bobo as his mistress expected.

"I'm not one to run away,--not if it was lio