A CLEW AT LAST The servants at Elmhurst all ate in a pleasant dining room with windows facing a garden of geraniums.

Tom Gates had been at the house two days before he encountered Eliza Parsons at the table, for the servants were not all able to take their meals at the same time.
It was at luncheon, the day of the joint debate at Fairview, that the young man first met Eliza, who sat opposite him.

The only other person present was old Donald, the coachman, who was rather deaf and never paid any attention to the chatter around him.
As he took his seat Tom gave a half-frightened glance into Eliza's face and then turned red as she smiled coquettishly and said: "Dear me! It's the young man who called me his dear Lucy." "You--you're very like her," stammered Tom, unable to take his eyes from her face.

"Even now I--I can't believe I'm mistaken." She laughed merrily in a sweet, musical voice, and then suddenly stopped with her hand on her heart and cast at him a startled look that was in such sharp contrast to her former demeanor that he rose from his chair.
"Sit down, please," she said, slowly.

And then she studied his face with sober earnestness--with almost wistful longing.