She was amused as well as annoyed at the woman's impudence, but it was just as well to know what was being said about her downstairs. Pretending, therefore, to be interested, and curbing her impatience, she placed the still unopened letter on the table, and, going to her trunk, took from it a thimble and thread. Closing down the lid again, she sat on the trunk and began to sew a rip in her skirt. Annie, meantime, had begun to fuss at making the bed. [Illustration: SHE BEGAN TO SEW A RIP IN HER SKIRT. _Page 162._] "Well, yo' know," went on the maid, "Mis' Farley she's been havin' so much trouble wid her roomers. Yestuhday dat young lady on de second flo' front, she lef. She's gwine wid some troupe on the road. She owed her room for three weeks, and jus' had to leave her trunk. My! how Mis' Farley did scold her. Mis' Farley let on she could have paid dat money if she wanted to, but, somehow, Ah guess she couldn't----" She was carrying the pillows round the table, when suddenly she stopped talking and stooped to inspect the letter, which was still lying there. Laura happened to look up. Indignantly, she exclaimed: "Annie!" The negress looked confused, but was not otherwise abashed. Going on with her work, she continued coolly: "--For if she could, she wouldn't have left her trunk, would she, Miss Laura?" "No, I suppose not," replied the actress guardedly. After a pause, she asked: "What did Mrs. Farley say about me?" The negress picked up the kimona from the chair and carried it to the wardrobe. With some hesitation, she said: "Oh, nothin' much." She needed encouragement, and Laura gave it to her. "Well, what?" Thus coaxed, Annie went on: "She kinder say somethin' 'bout yo' bein' three weeks behind in yo' room rent, an' she said she t'ought it was 'bout time yuh handed her somethin', seem' as how yuh must o' had some stylish friends when yuh come here." "Who, for instance?" "Ah don't know. Mis' Farley said some of 'em might slip yo' enough jest to help yuh out." Stopping in her work, she looked curiously at the actress. "Ain't yo' got nobody to take care of yo' at all, Miss Laura?" Laura shook her head despondently. Sadly, she replied: "No! No one." "Dat's too bad." "Why?" The negress grinned. Significantly, she said: "Mis' Farley says yuh wouldn't have no trouble at all gettin' any man to take care of yuh if yuh wanted to." Laura averted her head. A chill ran through her. Only too well she knew what the girl meant. She wished she would stop gossiping and go. With some display of irritation, she said: "Don't talk that way, Annie--please." But the negress was not to be put off so easily. In her coarse, brutal way, she felt sorry for the pretty young lady, and aware that in some quarters good looks are negotiable, she felt chagrined that such valuable assets should not be realized upon. Playing nervously with a corner of the table-cloth, she continued: