She arose and rearranged her disordered dress, and went downstairs to Mrs. Bruce’s room and resumed her needlework and sewed diligently until luncheon time. There were two vigilant eavesdroppers in that house, and all the walls had ears. So it had already become known in the family that Em. was going away the next day, not to return, and so throughout the hour of lunch they all, with two exceptions, treated her with distinguished kindness. The exceptions were Commodore Bruce, who always had used her well, and now made no change, and Ronald Bruce, who spoke to no one if he could help it, but sat and sulked through the whole meal. After lunch Em. hurried up to Mrs. Bruce’s room and took her work, being desirous of doing her whole duty by her employer. And for the short remainder of her stay the girl worked very diligently, confining herself all day long to Mrs. Bruce’s room, and even taking her work to the attic and stitching half the night. She never saw Ronald Bruce except at meal times, and then never spoke with him beyond the conventional greeting. Before Saturday evening at six o’clock she had completed her last piece of work and handed it over to Mrs. Bruce. Then she packed her trunk and her handbag, dressed herself for her journey home, and sat down before the portrait of Lonny Bruce to gaze at it and enjoy it while waiting for the arrival of her father. At a few minutes after six o’clock Liza entered the attic chamber and said: “If you please, Miss Em., your father has come for you. And my missus sent you dis, and ax you will you send her a deceit for it. And Mose is outside de door, waitin’ to carry down your trunk to de wagon.” “Very well, Liza, tell Mose to come in,” said Em. Then, while the man was carrying down her trunk, she opened the blank envelope that had been handed to her by Liza and found in it three dollars—her week’s wages. Now Em. could never have told why, at the sight of that money, the blood rushed to her head and flooded all her face and neck with fiery flushes. But certainly she quickly replaced the notes in the envelope, dampened the gummed edges with her lips and sealed it, and then took a pencil from her pocket, turned the envelope face up on the mantel-shelf, and standing there, directed it to Mrs. Bruce. “Here, Liza, take this to your mistress,” she said, handing it to the girl. “Is this the deceit?” inquired Liza. “It is the best sort of receipt,” replied Em. Then she gave Liza a belt and buckle for a keepsake and sent by her a woolen neck-scarf to Mose. “Now I’ll go down,” she said to herself, and take leave of the dear old man, for somehow I love him, though he breaks my heart. She ran nimbly down the stairs and into the study, but, instead of the commodore, there sat Ronald Bruce in the big leathern chair. “Oh, Ronald! I expected to find your uncle to bid him good-by!” exclaimed Em., glad but frightened at this unexpected meeting with her lover at the last moment.