During this time Mrs. John Arthur was slowly dropping into her _role_ of invalid. First, she gave up her habitual walks about the grounds and on the terrace. Then, her drives became too fatiguing. Next, she found herself too languid to appear at breakfast, and that meal was served in her room. She was not ill, she protested; only a trifle indisposed. Let no one be at all concerned for her; she should be as well as usual in a few days. And Celine, who was very sympathetic, and was the first to suggest that a physician be consulted, was laughingly assured that if madame were sick, she, Celine, should be her head nurse. Mrs. Arthur had been absent from the family breakfast table for two days, when Miss Arthur met with a fresh grievance at the hands of Celine. Celine had been unusually garrulous, and had been regaling her mistress with descriptions of the great people, and the magnificent toilets she had seen, while with some of her former _miladis_. Suddenly she dropped the subject of a grand ball which had transpired in Baltimore, where her mistress was the guest of the honorable somebody, to exclaim: "It has just come to me, mademoiselle, where I must have seen Monsieur Percy. It was in Baltimore, and they said--" Here she became much confused, and pretended to be fully occupied with the folds of her mistress's dress. Miss Arthur looked down upon her sharply, and asked, "What did they say?" Celine stammered: "Oh, it was only gossip, mademoiselle; nothing worth repeating, I assure you." The curiosity and jealousy of the spinster were fully aroused. "Don't attempt any subterfuges, Celine," she said, in her loftiest tone. "I desire to know what was said of my--Mr. Percy." The girl arose to her feet, and with much apparent reluctance, replied: "They said, mademoiselle--of course, it was only gossip--that he was very much of a fortune-hunter, and that he was engaged to some woman much older than himself, who was immensely rich." Miss Arthur sat down and looked hard at her maid. "How do you know that Mr. Percy is that man?" "Oh! I don't know, my lady--mademoiselle. I only said that I thought I have seen him in Baltimore; the Mr. Percy they used to talk of there, must have been another." Miss Arthur looked like an ancient Sphinx. "Do you think that Mr. Percy is that man?" she asked. "_Merci!_ my lady, how can I tell that? It might have been he; and the old woman there might have disappointed him, you know," artlessly. Miss Arthur was literally speechless with rage. Without replying, she rose and swept into the adjoining room, closing the door behind her with a bang. Celine smiled comfortably, and went to minister unto Cora, to whom she confided her belief that Miss Arthur was dissatisfied with her, and meant to discharge her. "And only think, madame," she said plaintively, "it is all because, in an unguarded moment, I compared her to an old woman. It is so hard to remember, always, that you must not tell an old woman she is not young."