Oh, Joe, I am ashamed of you!" said Bell Crawford, and she lay back in
her chair, very near to a fit of the sulks.

"Really," said Tom Leslie, blushing a little in spite of himself, though
without knowing precisely why--"really, Miss Harris, I am afraid I am
not the best of men, but I hope I do not deserve any such terrible
appellation."

"There, I told you so, Bell, I knew he wasn't!" went on the wild girl,
as if she had been asking a solemn question and receiving a conclusive
answer. "We can trust him--he says we can, and I am going to put him to
the test at once. Suppose, Mr. Leslie, that a couple of distressed
damsels--"

"What a ninny you are making of yourself!" put in Miss Crawford, in a
tone not very far from earnest.

"Suppose that a couple of distressed damsels," Josephine Harris went on,
without heeding her in the least, "about to pass through a gloomy and
desolate wood, on the way to an enchanted castle, should appeal to you
to accompany them and give them the benefit of your courage and
your--yes, your respectability, in the adventure; would you go with
them, even if you were obliged to abandon a game of billiards and
forfeit the smoking of two cigars for that purpose?" and she threw
herself back in her chair, screwed her face into the expression supposed
to belong to a grand inquisitor, and waited for a reply.

"I would do my devoir like a true knight," said Leslie, making a mock
bow over the table, with his hand on his heart, "even if I forfeited
thereby not only two cigars but four and the playing of two whole games
of billiards."

"Generous knight!" said Joe, still preserving her melodramatic tone, "we
trust you--we enlist you into our service, 'for three years or during
the war!' Read!" and she solemnly handed over the slip of paper, on
which Leslie perceived the following advertisement, marked around with
black crayon, and under the general head of "Astrology":--

"THE STARS HAVE SAID IT! MADAME ELISE BOUTELL, from Paris, whom the
stars favor and to whom the secrets of the unknown world are
revealed, may be consulted on any of the great events of life, at No.
-- Prince Street, near the Bowery, every day, between 10 A.M. and 6
P.M. Let ignorance be banished, and let the light of the world
unknown dawn on the darkened minds. Persons who attempt deception in
visiting Madame Boutell, will find all disguise unavailing; but all
confidences are safe, as strict secrecy is obser