"No, I’m not Aunt Emmy, but you may take it I’m a friend," replied the old woman. "Don’t be frightened. Your father ain’t so very bad, but your folks would be glad to have you at home if you could manage it. And, look here, my gell, here’s good news for you. You may make a tidy bit of money by going, if you can get off at once--this very night. How much must you and that nice young man of yours put by before you can marry?" "We can’t marry till he sets up in business for himself, and it will take a hundred pounds at least," said the girl. "We’ve each got about ten pounds saved towards it. But what’s ten pounds?" "Added on to ninety it makes a hundred, and you can earn that by lending your place here for one fortnight to a niece of mine, who wants to be a journalist and write what the doings inside a smart house are like. She’d name no names, so you’d never be given away. All you’d have to do would be to tell the housekeeper your father was took bad, and would she let you go if you’d bring your cousin Maria in your stead--a clever, experienced girl, with the best references from Lord Northmuir’s house?" "My goodness me, you take my breath away!" gasped Jessie Adams. "How do I know but your niece is a thief who’d steal her Ladyship’s jewels?" "You don’t know, except that I say she isn’t. But, anyhow, what does it matter to you? You don’t need to come back or ever be in service again. Here’s the ninety pounds in gold, my dear. You can bite every piece, if you wish; and you’ve but to do what I say to get them before you walk out of this house. You settle matters with the housekeeper, and I’ll have my niece call on her within the hour." The girl with the languishing eyes and the weak mouth had her price, like many of her betters, and it happened to be exactly ninety pounds. Joan had brought a hundred, and considered that she had made a bargain. Jessie consented to speak to the housekeeper, and the countrywoman departed. By this time it was dusk. She took a four-wheeler and drove to the gates of the Park. In a dark and lonely spot the outer disguise was whisked off, and the paint wiped from her face. Underneath her shawl she wore a neat black dress, suitable for a housemaid in search of a situation. This, too, Joan had thoughtfully obtained at Clarkson’s, whence her pale blue cloth had been despatched by messenger to Woburn Place. The bonnet was quickly shaped into a hat; the stuffing which had plumped out the thin, girlish form was wrapped in the shawl which had concealed it, and hidden under a bush. Joan’s own hair was combed primly back from her forehead, and strained so tightly at the sides as to change the expression of her face completely. "Cousin Maria" was as different from Miss Joan Carthew as a mouse is from a bird of Paradise.