Mrs. Brinkley was amazed to see Liane coming home in an elegant carriage, and when she entered she could not help exclaiming:

"Really, my dear, I shall believe presently that you and Mistress Jenks must be rich folks in disguise! Here was your granny receiving a visit from a grand young lady in a carriage this morning, and now you coming home in another one, just when I was expecting you and Lizzie to come trudging home, afoot, from work. It\'s rather strange, I think, and, coupled with your gifts yesterday, it looks like you were fooling with some rich young man that means nothing but trifling, though I hope for your own sake it ain\'t so!"

There was a sharp note of suspicion in her voice, but Liane, inured to harshness, dared not resent it, only shrank sensitively, as from a blow, and meekly explained the happenings of the day, giving the bare facts only, but withholding the promises Mrs. Clarke had made, too incredulous of good fortune coming to her to make any boast.

[Pg 252]

Mrs. Brinkley flushed, and exclaimed:

"That was a brave thing you did, my dear, and I want you to excuse me if I hurt your feelings just now. I spoke for your own good, wishing to be as careful over your welfare as I am over my own sister Lizzie\'s!"

"I understand, and I thank you!" the young girl answered sweetly, emboldening Mrs. Brinkley to ask curiously:

"Did the rich lady whose life you saved give you any reward?"

"She asked me very particularly to return to the hotel to-morrow, and intimated that I should not have to work for my living any more!"

"Then your fortune\'s made, my dear girl. Let me congratulate you," cried Mrs. Brinkley. "I\'ve news for you, too. I was lucky enough to secure two new boarders for my two empty rooms this morning."

Liane feigned a polite interest, and she added:

"One was a man, a language teacher in a boarding school. I didn\'t like his looks much. He is dark and Spanish looking, but he paid my price in advance, so that reconciled me to his scowling brow and black whiskers. The other is a seamstress, very neat and ladylike, and I believe I shall[Pg 253] find her real pleasant. Her name is Sophie Nutter, and his is Carlos Cisneros."

Liane\'s eyes brightened as she exclaimed:

"There used to be a lady\'s maid at Cliffdene named Sophie Nutter. I wonder if it can be the same?"

"You might make a little call on her and see. Her room is next yours, and your granny has gone out to buy some baked beans for her supper."

Liane was glad that granny had not seen her come home in the carriage, she hated having to explain everything to the ill-natured old crone, and she started to go upstairs, but looked back to ask:

"Who was granny\'s caller?"

"I don\'t know. She was in such a bad temper when she went away, I didn\'t dare ask. The young lady was all in silk and fur, with a thick veil over her face, but some locks of hair peeped out at the back of her neck, and they were thick and red as copper. She stayed upstairs with granny as much as an hour, and when she left the old woman seemed to be perfectly devilish in her temper. Seems to me I\'d be afraid to live with her if I was you, Liane!"

[Pg 254]

"So I am, Mrs. Brinkley, but she is old and poor, and it would be wicked for me to desert her, you know!"

"I wonder what God leaves such as her in the world for to torment good people, while He takes away good, useful ones, that can ill be spared!" soliloquized the landlady; but Liane sighed without replying, and, running upstairs, tapped lightly on the new boarder\'s door.

It opened quickly, and there were mutual exclamations of surprise and pleasure. It was, indeed, the Sophie Nutter of Cliffdene.

"Do come in my room and sit down, Miss Lester. I\'m so proud to see you again!" cried the former maid.

Liane accepted the invitation, and they spent half an hour exchanging confidences.

"I saw in a Stonecliff paper that you got the prize for beauty, and no wonder! You are fairer than a flower, my dear young lady! But, my goodness, how mad Miss Roma must have been! By the way, I saw her getting out of a carriage here to-day, and she was closeted with your granny an hour in close conversation. Does she visit you often?"

"She has never been here before. I cannot[Pg 255] imagine why she came, but I dare not ask granny unless she volunteers some information," confessed Liane, as she started up, exclaiming: "I hear her coming in now, so I will go and help her make the tea!"

"Bless you, my sweet young lady, you deserve a better fate than living with that cross old hag!" exclaimed Sophie Nutter impulsively.

She was surprised when Liane turned back to her and said with a sudden ripple of girlish laughter:

"Sophie, suppose my lot should change? Suppose Mrs. Clarke should do something grand for me in return for saving her life to-day? Suppose I were rich and grand, which it isn\'t likely I shall ever be! Could I employ you for my maid?"

"Yes, indeed, my dear Miss Lester, and I should be proud, and grateful for the chance to serve such a sweet, kind mistress!" cried Sophie earnestly.

"Thank you, and please consider yourself engaged, if the improbable happens!" laughed Liane, in girlish mockery, as she hurried out, meeting in the hall a dark-browed stranger, from whom she started back in dismay as he passed scowlingly to his room.

[Pg 256]

It was no wonder Liane recoiled in fear and dislike from Carlos Cisneros, the new boarder.

The sight of his somber, scowling face, with its dark beard, recalled to her that night upon the beach when Devereaux had saved her from a ruffian\'s insults.

For it was the selfsame face that had scowled upon her in the moonlight that night. It had terrified her too much ever to be forgotten.

He had evidently recognized her, too, from his start of surprise, and the angry bow with which he passed her by.

Trembling with the surprise of the unpleasant rencounter, Liane hastened to seclude herself within her own rooms.

Granny Jenks had just entered, and she was still in the vilest of humors, glaring murderously at Liane, without uttering a word, and giving vent to her temper by banging and slamming everything within her reach.