colleges. She was an accomplished musician and a very successful
teacher. Her pupils undoubtedly progressed, although they did not
have the blind love and admiration which pupils usually have for a
beautiful teacher. To this there was one exception.

Miss Farrel always smiled, never frowned or reprimanded. It was said
that Miss Farrel had better government than Miss Florence Dean, the
other assistant. Miss Dean was plain and saturnine, and had no
difficulty in obtaining a good boarding-place, even with the mother
of a marriageable daughter, who had taken her in with far-sighted
alacrity. She dreamed of business calls concerning school matters,
which Mr. Horace Allen, the principal, might be obliged to make, and
she planned to have her daughter, who was a very pretty girl, in
evidence. But poor Miss Farrel was thrown back upon the mercies of
Miss Hart and the feather-beds and the hotel.

There were other considerations besides the feather-beds and the poor
fare which conspired to render the hotel an undesirable
boarding-place. Miss Farrel might as well have been under the
espionage of a private detective as with Miss Hart. If Miss Hart was
suspicious of dire mischief in the cases of her other boarders, she
was certain in the case of Eliza Farrel. She would not have admitted
her under her roof at all had she not been forced thereto by the
necessity for money. Miss Hart herself took care of Miss Farrel's
room sometimes. She had no hesitation whatever in looking through her
bureau drawers; indeed, she considered it a duty which she owed
herself and the character of her house. She had taken away the keys
on purpose, and had told miss Farrel, without the slightest
compunction, that they were lost. The trunks were locked, and she had
never been able to possess herself of the keys, but she felt sure