heard that she leads them a terrible life, and can keep no one with her very long, but her maid, Harriet, who seems to know just how to manage her, and has been with her for ten years. She is so exceedingly antagonistic she has very few friends, and yet I have heard that there is kindness in her heart, if any one can but once get down to it. I have heard that she is very generous, and has secretly done a great deal of good among the poor.” “How much do you imagine she is worth?” Mrs. Allison inquired. “I have no idea—a great deal, I have been told; while, living as she does, she cannot of course spend her income, so it must be accumulating.” “What will become of it when she gets through with it?” “That is another subject which excites considerable comment,” replied Mrs. Rogers. “She is so peculiar, she will probably make some exceedingly eccentric disposal of it; perhaps she will found an institution for the advancement of some strange whim.” “Well, she is truly a pitiable object, for of course, with her peculiarities, there are not many, if any, who love her, and life, without love, is not worth living,” sighed Mrs. Allison. Then she added, “You called her Miss Polly Leonard, is that really her name?” “No; she is Miss Pauline Leonard, but I suspect that she has been so queer that the Pauline has degenerated into Polly through the spite of her enemies. But,” looking at her watch, “I have an appointment with my dressmaker, and I must go at once.” The two ladies rose and passed out, but Salome still sat there and wiped away the tears which had been quietly flowing down her cheeks during the above recital. Her heart was full of sympathy and tenderness for the poor woman whose life had been warped and blighted by the spite of evil-disposed persons. “I am glad that I have heard her history,” she murmured, “for I know it will help me to have patience with her, and pity for her moods. I am going to try to make her life a little brighter, poor, poor woman! Who can tell what possibilities were destroyed when those revengeful people sought to ruin her happiness—she might have been a loving wife, a noble mother, and the world a great deal better for her influence. Those women will have a great deal to answer for by and by; but I believe my coming here this afternoon was providential.” Precisely at four o’clock, Salome rang the bell at the door of her new home, and was soon admitted by the good-natured Harriet. “You’re on time, Miss Howland, and that will please Miss Leonard—though you’ll never know it from her,” she remarked. “I am to show you to your room—your trunk is already there—and then you’re to have dinner with the mistress.” Salome followed Harriet up two flights of stairs to a pleasant room directly over the one where she had met Miss Leonard in the morning. It was comfortably furnished, and had a home-like air that was very restful and satisfying to her.