"MADAME:--The girl in your employ, who calls herself Ruth Richards, is
not what she pretends to be. Her true name is Mona Montague, and she is
compromising herself by secret meetings with a gentleman in high life.
She lunched this morning at the Hoffman House Cafe with Mr. Raymond
Palmer, the son of a worthy gentleman whom you intend to marry. You
perhaps will best know whether she has any hidden purpose in figuring
as a seamstress, and under the name of Ruth Richards, in your house."

Unfortunately for our young lovers, Miss Josephine Holt had also been
taking an early lunch in the Hoffman House Cafe that morning, and had
seen Ray and Mona the moment they had entered.

Ever since she had discovered Mona at Hazeldean she had been trying to
think of some way by which she could separate them, and now, knowing that
Mrs. Montague was bent upon marrying Mr. Palmer, and feeling sure that
there was some secret which Mona wished to preserve by becoming a
seamstress in the woman's house under an assumed name, she believed she
could the best achieve her purpose by disclosing her identity and setting
Mrs. Montague against her. How well she succeeded will be seen later on.




CHAPTER VII.

MONA MAKES A SURPRISING DISCOVERY.


It was now the third week in April, and the season was unusually early.