of dimples, which she, however, chastened into that resignation which
seemed characteristic of the pair. "Let's see your 'intended'--as might
be."

Thus supported, Mr. Langworthy led Mrs. Byers into the hall through a
crowd of loungers, into a smaller hall, and there opened the door of the
kitchen. It was a large room, whose windows were half darkened by the
encompassing pines which still pressed around the house on the scantily
cleared site. A number of men and women, among them a Chinaman and a
negro, were engaged in washing dishes and other culinary duties; and
beside the window stood a young blonde girl, who was wiping a tin pan
which she was also using to hide a burst of laughter evidently caused by
the abrupt entrance of her employer. A quantity of fluffy hair and part
of a white, bared arm were nevertheless visible outside the disk,
and Mrs. Byers gathered from the direction of Mr. Langworthy's eyes,
assisted by a slight nudge from his elbow, that this was the selected
fair one. His feeble explanatory introduction, addressed to the
occupants generally, "Just showing the house to Mrs.--er--Dusenberry,"
convinced her that the circumstances of his having been divorced he had
not yet confided to the young woman. As he turned almost immediately
away, Mrs. Byers in following him managed to get a better look at the
girl, as she was exchanging some facetious remark to a neighbor. Mr.
Langworthy did not speak until they had reached the deserted dining-room
again.

"Well?" he said briefly, glancing at the clock, "what did ye think o'
Mary Ellen?"

To any ordinary observer the girl in question would have seemed the
least fitted in age, sobriety of deportment, and administrative capacity