etween him
and me. That's where the shoe pinches, don't you see? I'm not easy in my
mind when I see him leaving you mistress here to do just what you like.
No offense! I speak out--I do. I want to know what you are about all by
yourself in this room? How did you pick up with the Major? I never heard
him speak of you before to-day."

Under all the surface selfishness and coarseness of this strange girl
there was a certain frankness and freedom which pleaded in her favor--to
my mind, at any rate. I answered frankly and freely on my side.

"Major Fitz-David is an old friend of my husband's," I said, "and he is
kind to me for my husband's sake. He has given me permission to look in
this room--"

I stopped, at a loss how to describe my employment in terms which should
tell her nothing, and which should at the same time successfully set her
distrust of me at rest.

"To look about in this room--for what?" she asked. Her eye fell on the
library ladder, beside which I was still standing. "For a book?" she
resumed.

"Yes," I said, taking the hint. "For a book."

"Haven't you found it yet?"

"No."

She looked hard at me, undisguisedly considering with herself whether I
were or were not speaking the truth.

"You seem to be a good sort," she said, making up her mind at last.
"There's nothing stuck-up about you. I'll help you if I can. I have
rummaged among the books here over and over again, and I know more about
them than you do. What book do you want?"

As she put that awkward question she noticed for the first time Lady
Clarinda's nosegay lying on the side-table where the Major had left it.
Instantly forgetting me and my book, this curious girl pounced like a
fury on the flowers, and actually trampled them under her feet!

"There!" she cried. "If I had Lady Clarinda here I'd serve her in the
same way."

"What will the Major say?" I asked.

"What do I care? Do you suppose I'm afraid of _him?_ Only last week I
broke one of his fine gimcracks up there, and all through Lady Clarinda
and her flowers!"

She pointed to the top of the book-case--to the empty space on it
close by the window. My heart gave a sudden bound as my eyes took the
direction indicated by her finger. _She_ had broken the vase! Was the
way to discovery about to reveal itself to me through this girl? Not a
word would pass my lips; I could only look at her.

"Yes!" she said. "The thing stood there. He knows how I hate her
flowers, and he put her n