"And what would you say, Pearl," said Horace in a deadly impartial tone, "if a man offered you a job, and in the first interview told his life's story, asked you to write to him every day and promised you jewels if you stayed on the job until he got back--what would you say?" "I wouldn't say a word," answered Pearl. "I'd take to the tall timber. I know that kind." "You are both absolutely ridiculous," said Augusta haughtily. "You are absolutely right," said Horace. "You don't mean to say that someone has been trying to wangle Augusta away from you, Horace?" asked Pearl, generously abandoning all interest in her own problems for the moment. The two others said no and yes simultaneously, and began to pour out the story. Augusta's point was that Horace did not respect her business honor or else he would not ask her to break--Horace's point was that Augusta did not really love him or she wouldn't think up all these excuses--she'd marry him as he asked her to do. Ah, but he hadn't had any idea of getting married until he heard that she was going to take this place! He had--he had--he had come there to tell her, only she had been so excited about this other man---- Nonsense, the trouble with Horace was that he was jealous. No, he was not at all jealous, but if he were he had good reason to be--writing to a man every day, and accepting jewels---- Pearl kept looking from one to the other, deeply interested. In the first pause--which did not come for a long time--she said gravely, "How is it, Gussie? Do you really want to marry Horace?" She said it very nicely, but on her expressive face was written the thought that she herself could not see how anyone could want to marry him. "I do, I do," answered Augusta rather tearfully; "but how can I when I've given my word?" "I'll tell you how you can," said Pearl. "You marry him and disappear into the wilds of Canada, and I'll take your place with the Conway family." They stared at each other like people waiting for the sound of an explosion. They were trying to think of obstacles. "Except," said Pearl, "that I'm not efficient like you, and not very good at mathematics." "You were efficient in the way you ran the junior ball," said Augusta. "Everyone said----" A spasm of amusement crossed Pearl's face. "Did I never tell you about that?" she said. "I vamped the senior at Amherst who had run theirs, and he not only gave me all the dope but he did most of my work. I was a mine of information. But that isn't efficiency." "I disagree with you," said Augusta. The more she thought of this idea, the more it seemed to her perfect. There had always been a kind of magic about Pearl, and wasn't magic the highest form of human efficiency? It was not breaking one's word to substitute a better article than that contracted for. To send Pearl in her place would be keeping her word doubly. She saw Pearl charming Antonia, dazzling the boy, setting all the Conway household to rights by ways peculiarly her own.