"They say," said Captain Clifford, helping himself to venison, "she has been telling fortunes with a pack of dirty cards. I must confess I was surprised to hear that our Grace had been one of the rabble to visit her, Maria." Mrs. Clifford looked at her husband in surprise. "Our Grace?" "Yes, our Grace. It seems to be new to you. Mr. Harrington told me to-day that she was ringleader of a party of little girls who went out to Small's Enlargement on a picnic excursion. The woman stole their baskets, and said such hobgoblin things that his Isabel has been nearly frantic ever since." "My daughter!" said Mrs. Clifford, in a sorrowful voice. "O, ma, I've wanted every hour and minute to tell you, and pa too; but I promised not to!" "Shame, shame!" cried Horace, pointing his index finger at his sister; "before I'd sneak off to a gypsy that way!" "That will do, my son," remarked Captain Clifford. "You may finish your dinner." "O, pa," said Grace, pushing back her chair, and burying her face in her handkerchief, "we all promised not to tell, you know, and I wouldn't, not for my right hand; and here's Isa, pa, she's gone and broken her word." "Wrong, I grant," replied Captain Clifford, with a provoking smile; "there should he honor even among thieves." Grace winced at this proverb. The subject was now dropped, for what Mrs. Clifford said to her daughter she preferred to say to her alone. ----- Cassy Hallock came home. Her father, mother, and brother Johnny were at the wharf to meet her. "Where's Gracie?" was her first salutation, after she had quietly kissed her relatives. "Why, my dear, I've hardly seen Grace since you went away," said Mrs. Hallock. "Goes with Isa Harrington nowadays," remarked brother John, thrusting his thumbs into his vest pockets: "just the way with girls. It's all their wonderful friendships amount to." "O, Johnny!" replied Cassy, faintly; and then she walked on in silence, for Cassy Hallock was not a little girl who wore her heart on her sleeve; it was kept out of sight, and usually did its aching in secret. The next day was Saturday; but Grace did not come to see Cassy, who was quite wretched, but too proud to let any one know it. At last, a happy thought struck her. "Ma, mayn't I go round to see Gracie, and carry a bottle of your cream beer? I reckon she doesn't know I'm home again." "Strange," thought Cassy, as she drew near her friend's house, and paused to rest. "Strange Johnny should say Grace has changed! Why, I've only been gone two months, and folks don't change in two months." Yet she felt strangely agitated as she entered the yard. Gracie must know she was home again; she almost wished she had waited to see if she would call. "I declare, if there isn't Cassy Hallock coming, bless her heart. O, dear me, no, the hypocrite!" said Grace, looking out of her chamber window. "I reckon she hasn't seen me; I'll run and hide. She needn't come here and pretend to be friends!"