ve her her
walkin' ticket! Candace never could bear them two bys, and _him_ was the
worse of the two, she always said."

"Well, a sight of good it would do for old Candace to make a fuss!" said
the discontented one. "And anyhow, he's as handsome as the devil, and
she's got money enough, so she oughtn't complain."

"Money ain't everything!" sniffed Aileen. "I wouldn't marry a king if I
wasn't crazy about him!"

"Oh, you're young!" sneered Marie with disdain. "Wait till your looks
go! You don't know what you'd take up with!"

"Well I'd never take up with the likes of _him_!" returned the Irish
girl grandly, "and what's more he knows it!" She tossed her head
meaningfully and was about to sail away on her own business when a stir
below stairs attracted their attention. A stout, elderly woman, dressed
in a stiff new black silk and an apoplectic hat, came panting up the
stairs looking furtively from side to side, as if she wished to escape
before anyone recognized her:

"It's Candace!" exclaimed Aileen. "As I live! Now what d'ye wantta know
about that! Poor soul! Poor soul! Candy! Oh!--Candy! What iver brought
ye here the night? This is no place for the loikes of you. You better
beat it while the beatin' is good if ye know which side yer bread's
buthered!"

But the old nurse came puffing on, her face red and excited:

"Is she here? Has she come, yet, my poor wee Betty?" she besought them
eagerly.

"Miss Betty's at the church now gettin' married!" announced Marie
uppishly, "and you'd best be gettin' out of here right away, for the
wedding party's due to arrive any minute now and madam'll be very angry
to have a servant as doesn't belong snoopin' round at such a time!"

"Be still, Marie! For shame!" cried Aileen. "You've no need to talk like
that to a self-respectin' woman as has been in this house more years
than you have been weeks! Come along, Candace, and I'll slip you in my
room and tell you all about it when I can get away long enough. You see,
Miss Betty's being married----"

"But she's _not_!" cried Candace wildly. "I was at the church myself.
Miss Betty sent me the word to be sure and come, and where to sit and
all, so she'd see me; and I went, and she come up the aisle as white as
a lily and dropped right there before the poolpit, just like a little
white lamb that couldn't move another step, all of a heap in her pretty
things! And they stopped the ceremony and everybody got up, and they
took her away, an