slightest doubt that the American lady was very rich. That she travelled so simply and alone was nothing. They all did queer things — the Americans. She was obtusely unconscious that she had been speaking slightingly of them to one of themselves, and she talked on after the romantic manner of girls the world over, giving the gossip of the inn parlors as she listened to it evening after evening, where the affairs of the nobility were freely discussed and enlarged and commented upon with eager interest.

What was spoken in her ladyship’s chamber and Lady Laura’s boudoir — their half-formed plans and aspirations — carelessly dropped words and unfinished sentences — quickly travelled to the housekeeper’s parlor — to the servant’s table — to the haunts of grooms and