"Don't Miss Liane Lester work with you at Miss Bray's, Miss Dolly? There's a letter for her this morning, the first letter, I believe, that ever came for her, and now that I come to think about it, she never calls here for mail, anyhow!" Dolly's cheeks flushed guiltily, and her heart gave a strangling thump of surprise, but she said, quite coolly: "Yes, Liane works at Miss Bray's with me, and I'm going down there now, so I'll take her letter, if you please, and save her the trouble of calling for it." The unsuspecting clerk readily handed it out, and Dolly clutched it with a trembling hand, hurrying out so as to read the superscription and gratify her curiosity. "What a beautiful handwriting! A man's, too, and postmarked Boston. Now, it must be Devereaux or Dean writing to her!" she muttered, longing to open it, yet not quite daring to commit the crime. She placed it at last in her pocket, thinking curiously: "As I don't know where Liane is, of course I cannot forward this letter to her, and--I would give anything in the world to know what is in it, and who wrote it! Perhaps Miss Clarke would know the writing." That evening, when she was brushing out the long tresses of Roma's hair, she ventured on the subject: "To-day the postmaster gave me a letter from Boston to Liane Lester, but I don't know where to send it, and I am wondering who wrote it!" She felt Roma give a quick start as she cried: "Let me see it!" Dolly giggled, and brought it out of her pocket. "Oh! It is Mr. Devereaux's writing," cried Roma excitedly. "So I thought, miss. Now I wonder what he wrote to her about? I must be mistaken thinking he knew she had gone to Boston," cried Dolly. Roma turned the letter over and over in her hand, her eyes blazing, her cheeks crimson, her heart throbbing with jealous rage. How dared he write to Liane? How dared he forget her, Roma, so insolently, and so soon? She would have liked to see them both stretched dead at her feet! They looked guiltily at each other, the mistress and maid, one thought in either mind. Dare they open the letter? Dolly twittered: "I shouldn't think you would allow him to write to her! He belongs to you!" She felt like making common cause with Roma against Liane, in her bitter envy forgetting how often she had inveighed against Roma's pride and cruelty. She continued artfully: "The letter can never do her any good, because we don't know where to send it. And--and would it be any harm for us to take a peep at it?" "I think I have a right," Roma answered, her bosom heaving stormily, then she clutched Dolly's arm: "Girl, girl, if we do this thing--you and I--will you swear never to betray me?" she breathed hoarsely. "I swear!" Dolly muttered fiercely, in her anger at Liane, and then Roma's impatience burst all bounds. She quickly broke the seal of the letter, her angry eyes running over the scented sheets, while Dolly coolly read it over her shoulder.