Visions of a new gown and bonnet floated joyfully before her mind’s eye, but she was soon undeceived. “Who and what of this young dandy who is making so free of my house these two weeks?” he demanded. Miss Tuttle bridled, and tried to blush like an eighteen-year-old girl. “Oh, Mr. Hermann, the most charming young man--he’s a boarder at Widow Gray’s, and is most attentive,” she simpered. “So I have heard, but who is he after--Leola?” he demanded. “Oh, sir, no, indeed--that is, I cannot really be sure of his intentions toward either; he’s so very charming to both of us we cannot decide between us which he prefers yet--but he does not seem like a flirt!” “Amanda Tuttle, don’t be an old fool! How do you suppose any young man could hesitate between an old woman like you and pretty Leola?” he replied, brusquely. “Sir!” Miss Tuttle bridled, and tears came into her eyes. “Well, well, I spoke roughly, but you should not be so silly,” returned her employer. “Remember you were not very pretty when you first came here, and fifteen years has changed you into a faded old maid.” “I--I--hate you!” she sobbed, pitifully. “Hard words break no bones,” he said, carelessly. “If you will pay me my salary I’ll leave Wheatlands forever!” she sobbed, bitterly, in her humiliation; but he went on, coolly: “No, I don’t want you to leave; I really need your services, Miss Tuttle. But as to whether you ever get that money I owe you depends on your own exertions. I’ve lost everything, and unless Leola makes a rich marriage I’ve planned for her, I will not have a roof over my head this day month.” Miss Tuttle mopped her wet eyes with a little lace-edged handkerchief, and straightened up, full of breathless curiosity. “Oh, who is he?” she exclaimed; and thereupon he suddenly confided his difficulties freely to her, hopeful of her ready co-operation, but, being totally unversed in the intricacies of a woman’s heart, he made the mistake of his life. On learning that the rotund widower, Bennett, whom she secretly loved, was a suitor for Leola’s hand, the spinster promptly went into hysterics that she could not have helped to save her life. She shrieked furiously: “Oh, the fat villain, the vile deceiver! After all his attentions to me since his poor wife died, to turn around and fall in love with a chit of a girl like Leola! Oh, I could tear him limb from limb, the wretch! And as to marrying him, she shall not--never, never!” “Oh, really, really!” soothed her employer, but all to no purpose, for, her heart being touched, she could not restrain her excitable feelings, but raved on angrily and tearfully for some time, until her emotion spent itself, the old man having bided his time to this end. He now observed, sarcastically: “If you have done making a fool of yourself now, Amanda Tuttle, perhaps you will tell me what you are going to do about it. You cannot marry Bennett if he will not have you.” “No,” she moaned, tearfully; and he continued, coolly: