had behaved nicely; but after what's happened I shall insist upon
paying him for every lesson, so as to make him feel that the whole
thing, from first to last, was a purely business transaction on my
part. Yes, a PURELY--BUSINESS--TRANSACTION!"

MISS SPAULDING, turning to her music: "Then I've got nothing more to
say to you, Ethel Reed."

MISS REED: "I don't say but what, after he's taken the money and
signed the receipt, I'll listen to anything else he's got to say,
very willingly." Miss Spaulding makes no answer, but begins to play
with a scientific absorption, feeling her way fitfully through the
new piece, while Miss Reed, seated by the register, trifles with the
book she has taken from the table.



II.



The interior of the room of Miss Spaulding and Miss Reed remains in
view, while the scene discloses, on the other side of the partition
wall in the same house, the bachelor apartment of Mr. Samuel
Grinnidge. Mr. Grinnidge in his dressing-gown and slippers, with his
pipe in his mouth, has the effect of having just come in; his friend
Mr. Oliver Ransom stands at the window, staring out into the November
weather.