On their way to Mrs. Morpher’s the master thought proper to ridicule the whole performance.  Now he shouldn’t wonder if Mliss thought that the young lady who acted so beautifully was really in earnest, and in love with the gentleman who wore such fine clothes.  Well, if she were in love with him it was a very unfortunate thing!  “Why?” said Mliss, with an upward sweep of the drooping lid.  “Oh! well, he couldn’t support his wife at his present salary, and pay so much a week for his fine clothes, and then they wouldn’t receive as much wages if they were married as if they were merely lovers—­that is,” added the master, “if they are not already married to somebody else; but I think the husband of the pretty young countess takes the tickets at the door, or pulls up the curtain, or snuffs the candles, or does something equally refined and elegant.  As to the young man with nice clothes, which are really nice now, and must cost at least two and a half or three dollars, not to speak of that mantle of red drugget which I happen to know the price of, for I bought some of it for my room once—­as to this young man, Lissy, he is a pretty good fellow, and if he does drink occasionally, I don’t think people ought to take advantage of it and give him black eyes and throw him in the mud.  Do you?  I am sure he might owe me two dollars and a half a long time, before I would throw it up in his face, as the fellow did the other night at Wingdam.”

Mliss had taken his hand in both of hers and was trying to look in his eyes, which the young man kept as resolutely averted.  Mliss had a faint idea of irony, indulging herself sometimes in a species of sardonic humor, which was equally visible in her actions and her speech.  But the young man continued in this strain until they had reached Mrs. Morpher’s, and he had deposited Mliss in her maternal charge.  Waiving the invitation of Mrs. Morpher to refreshment and rest, and shading his eyes with his hand to keep out the blue-eyed Clytemnestra’s siren glances, he excused himself, and went home.

For two or three days after the advent of the dramatic company, Mliss was late at school, and the master’s usual Friday afternoon ramble was for once omitted, owing to the absence of his trustworthy guide.  As he was putting away his books and preparing to leave the schoolhouse, a small voice piped at his side, “Please, sir?” The master turned and there stood Aristides Morpher.

“Well, my little man,” said the master, impatiently, “what is it? quick!”

“Please, sir, me and ‘Kerg’ thinks that Mliss is going to run away agin.”

“What’s that, sir?” said the master, with that unjust testiness with which we always receive disagreeable news.

“Why, sir, she don’t stay home any more, and ‘Kerg’ and me see her talking with one of those actor fellers, and she’s with him now; and please, sir, yesterday she told ‘Kerg’ and me she could make a speech as well as Miss Cellerstina Montmoressy, and she spouted right off by heart,” and the little fellow paused in a collapsed condition.