“I believe this woman exerts a bad influence over you, for she is not a lady and could not be made into one, no matter how hard she would try, nor whatever was done for her. I have hired you a good woman to take her place, and have notified Biddy to leave to-night. I allowed you to bring her with you because you were coming into a strange house. Will you be good enough to say something, and not sit there looking at me like that?” Still the girl was silent, while a mixture of emotions were arising in her breast. This man had taken such a hold upon her, had constituted himself her husband without her consent, and would send away her beloved Biddy, and---- Here her thoughts changed their current, and she thought of the man in the prison cell. Marry George Benson--never. Let Biddy go out of her life, delightful, droll old Biddy, whom she loved? No, she would go, too, then. Seeing that she was not going to speak, and hoping that she had taken his words as they were meant, the man arose and opened the door which opened into his private office. “Miss Wallace, will you please come in?” An angular-looking woman, with an evil eye, and who looked fixedly at Nellie, glided into the room. “This is your new companion, Nellie,” said Benson genially, “and I know you will like each other. Now you will take her to your suite of rooms, Helen, and show her where she is to sleep.” It was now time for Nellie to speak. She rose like a young empress and faced her guardian. “You have gone a little too far,” said she, throwing back her head haughtily; “just a little too far----” But before she could say anything more the woman had taken her by the arm and whispered: “We shall be the best of friends. There is nothing Miss Standish can ask me to do that I will be unwilling to try.” Nellie shook off the white fingers. “Don’t touch me,” shivered the girl; “I will not have you near me, do you understand? I won’t have you in my Biddy’s place. I will bid you good-night, Mr. Benson, and say that when I am twenty-one, I shall come back and you shall leave this house, but now, to-night, do you hear,” and the girl bent far forward and looked into the man’s eyes, “do you understand, I am going back to the boathouse with my Biddy.” With this sweeping statement, she flung herself out of the room, and fled upstairs, and she no sooner came near the door but she heard the sound of sobs. Opening it, she saw Biddy down upon her knees beside a trunk throwing her things in promiscuously. “What are you doing, Biddy?” asked the girl sternly. “Mr. Benson has told me to leave, and, darlint, it is better for you. I am not a lady, he says, but I loved you, child; I loved you.” “Biddy, listen to me. Are you going back to the boathouse?” “Yes.” “Then I am going with you. I just told Mr. Benson, too, and also said to that vixen in a black dress, who he said was to be my companion, that I would have nothing to do with her.”