It was wrong in you to listen, and you must not repeat it to any one else.

Will you promise ?" Lulu gave the required promise, then with terror in every lineament of her face she said: "But, Miss Alice, must I be Miss 'Lina's waiting maid?
Will Master Hugh permit it ?" Alice did not know Hugh as well as we do, and in her heart there was a fear lest for the sake of peace he might be overruled, so she replied evasively.

It was no easy task to sooth Muggins, and only Alice's direct avowal, that if possible she would herself become her purchaser, checked her cries at all, but the moment this was said her sobbing ceased, and Alice was able to question Lulu as to whether Hugh had read the letter.
"He must be rational," she said, "but it is so sudden," and a painful uneasiness crept over her as she recalled the look which several times had puzzled her so much.
"You can go now," Alice said, sitting down to reflect as to her next best course.
Adah must go to Terrace Hill at once, and Alice's must be the purse which defrayed all the expense of fitting her up.

If ever Alice felt thankful to God for having made her rich in this world's goods, it was that morning.

Only the previous night she had heard from Colonel Tiffton that the day was fixed for the sale of his house and that Nell had nearly cried herself into a second fever at the thoughts of leaving Mosside.