Miss Spicer, too, suffered both in reputation and temper. Her name had been roughly handled in the trial, and her plan of disgrace for the Laurence family had recoiled on herself. But this young lady was not of a nature to feel the shame of this exposure keenly, or abandon a project which she had once set her mind upon. Of course, she denied the whole thing, and called on Ellen Post to witness that the story told by Mrs. Boyce, and confirmed by the two convicted men, was a fabrication from beginning to end. Mrs. Lambert believed this, and Ivon would not permit himself to doubt it; for to a generous and noble character like his, the undercraft and meanness of a small nature is simply incomprehensible. As for Ellen, she was a ready witness in the young lady’s behalf, for the check had been honored before Miss Spicer knew of the failure of her conspiracy, and the waiting maid was willing to make any return that did not involve the money itself. As for the little episode of the wedding garments, Ellen passed it off with an airy declaration that she had only been altering a dress for Miss Spicer, and punished the curiosity of her fellow servants by a canard, they were all fools for believing. But the malice of Miss Spicer was not to be checked by a single defeat. By some means she had learned that Mrs. Lambert’s agent held a mortgage on the Laurence cottage, which the harassed family had allowed to sink into an almost hopeless amount by unpaid interest. This mortgage she empowered her own agent to purchase and forclose at once. It was an act of vengeance, which she hoped would destroy all vestige of respectability which this poor household had struggled so hard to maintain. But even here she was defeated ignominiously. Mrs. Carter happened to be in the Laurence parlor when the notice of this new calamity was served upon the family. She had called to urge once more the acceptance of her noble offer on Eva, before going out on a shopping excursion which was to terminate at Ball & Black’s, where something unusually splendid, in the way of a diamond bracelet, had been offered to her attention. “Come, now, get into the carriage, and we’ll talk over affairs as we ride along,” said the good-hearted woman, whose desire to have Eva with her had grown into a passion. “I’ve got Carter’s check for the bracelet, which is gorgeous, but I want your opinion. I wish Miss Ruthy here could go too; but she shall see it when we come back. Come, dear, step about lively, or we shall have Battles sulking again.”