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"If he remembers his unpaid bill, he must consider me mighty mean,"

she thought: and then, with her usual frankness, she told him of the

perplexity and asked his opinion.

"It would displease Mr. Guy very much if I were to give them back,"

she said: "but it hardly is right for me to accept them, is it?"

The doctor did not say she ought not to wear the ornaments, though he

longed to tear them from her arms and neck and throw them anywhere, he

cared not where, so they freed her wholly from Guy.

They were very becoming, he said. She would not look as well without

them; so she had better wear them to-night, and to-morrow, if she

would grant him an interview, he would talk with her further.

Dissembling doctor! He said all this to gain the desired interview

with Maddy, the interview for which Guy was to prepare her. That he

had not done so he felt assured, but he could not be angry with him,

as he came smilingly toward them, asking if they had talked privacy

long enough, and glancing rather curiously at Maddy's face. There was

nothing in its expression to disturb him, and, offering her his arm,

he led her back to the drawing-rooms where Agnes was smoothing down

the folds of her dress, preparatory to receiving the guests just

descending the stairs. It was a brilliant scene which Aikenside

presented that night, and amid it all Agnes bore herself like a queen,

while Jessie, with her sunny face and golden hair, came in for a full

share of attention. But amid the gay throng there was none so fair or

so beautiful as Maddy, who deported herself with as much ease and

grace as if she had all her life long been accustomed to just such

occasions as this. At a distance the doctor watched her, telling

several who she was, and once resenting by both look and manner a

remark made by Maria Cutler to the effect that she was nobody but Mrs.

Remington's governess, a poor girl whom Guy had taken a fancy to

educate out of charity.

"He seems very fond of his charity pupil, upon my word. He scarcely

leaves her neighborhood at all," whispered old Mrs. Cutler, the mother

of Maria, who, Guy said, once fancied Dr. Holbrook, and who had no

particular objections to fancying him now, provided it could be

reciprocal.

But the doctor was only intent on Maddy, knowing always just where she

was standing, just who was talking to her; and just how far from her

Guy was. He knew, too, when the latter was urging her to sing; and,

managing to get nearer, heard her object that no one cared to hear

her.