gal-like, of the thing she'd worked so easily, and when she went East
she looked around for some other wreck to try her hand on, and she found
it on the steamer coming back. And who do you think it was? Why, our
friend Louis Sylvester!"

Mrs. Merrydew smiled slightly, with her bright eyes still on the
speaker.

"Well, you know he IS fast at times--if he is a friend of mine--and she
reg'larly tackled him; and as my old woman says, it was a sight to see
her go for him. But then HE didn't tumble to it. No! Reformin' ain't in
HIS line I'm afeard. And what was the result? Why, Kelly only got all
the more keen when she found she couldn't manage him like Reddy,--and,
between you and me, she'd have liked Reddy more if he hadn't been so
easy,--and it's ended, I reckon, in her now falling dead in love with
Sylvester. She swears she won't marry any one else, and wants to devote
her whole life to him! Now, what's to be done! Reddy don't know it yet,
and I don't know how to tell him. Kelly says her mission was ended when
she made a new man of him, and he oughter be thankful for that. Couldn't
you kinder break the news to him and tell him there ain't any show for
him?"

"Does he love the girl so much, then?" said the lady gently.

"Yes; but I am afraid there is no hope for Reddy as long as she thinks
there's a chance of her capturing Sylvester."

The lady rose and went to the writing-table. "Would it be any comfort
to you, Mr. Woodridge, if you were told that she had not the slightest
chance with Sylvester?"