“I spoke to the stable hand about it.

“‘Look here,’ says I, ’is this business betwixt that pool player and our Effie serious?’

“He laughed.  ‘Serious enough, I guess,’ he says.  ‘They’re goin’ to be married pretty soon, I hear.  It’s all ‘cordin’ to the law and the prophets.  Ain’t you heard about the fortune tellin’ and how ’twas foretold she’d marry a Butler?’

“I’d heard, but I didn’t s’pose he had.  However, it seemed that Effie hadn’t been able to keep it to herself no longer.  Soon as she’d hooked her man she’d blabbed the whole thing.  The fo’mast hands wa’n’t talkin’ of nothin’ else, so this feller said.

“‘Humph!’ says I.  ‘Is it the prophecy that Butler’s bankin’ on?’

“He laughed again.  ’Not so much as on Lady Evelyn’s nine hundred, I cal’late,’ says he.  Sim likes Susannah the best of the two, so we all reckon, but she ain’t rich and Effie is.  And yet, if the Debs woman should win that lawsuit of hers against the railroad she’d have pretty nigh twice as much.  Butler’s a fool not to wait, I think,’ he says.

“This was of a Monday.  On Friday evenin’ Effie comes around to see me.  I was alone in the office.

“‘Mr. Wingate,’ she says, ‘I’m goin’ to leave to-morrer night.  I’m goin’ to be married on Sunday.’

“I’d been expecting it, but I couldn’t help feelin’ sorry for her.

“‘Don’t do nothin’ rash, Effie,’ I told her.  ’Are you sure that Butler critter cares anything about you and not your money?’

“She flared up like a tar barrel.  ‘The idea!’ she says, turnin’ red.  ’I just come in to give you warnin’.  Good-by.’

“‘Hold on,’ I sung out to her.  ’Effie, I’ve thought consider’ble about you lately.  I’ve been tryin’ to help you a little on the sly.  I realized that ‘twa’n’t pleasant for you workin’ here under Susannah Debs, and I’ve been tryin’ to find a nice place for you.  I wrote about you to Bob Van Wedderburn; he’s the rich banker chap who stopped here one summer.  “Jonesy,” we used to call him.  I know him and his wife fust rate, and he’d do ’most anything as a favor to me.  I told him what a neat, handy girl you was, and he writes that he’ll give you the job of second girl at his swell New York house, if you want it.  Now you just hand that Sim Butler his clearance papers and go work for Bob’s wife.  The wages are double what you get here, and—­’

“She didn’t wait to hear the rest.  Just sailed out of the room with her nose in the air.  In a minute, though, back she come and just put her head in the door.

“‘I’m much obliged to you, Mr. Wingate,’ says she.  ’I know you mean well.  But you ain’t had your fate foretold, same’s I have.  It’s all been arranged for me, and I couldn’t stop it no more’n Jonah could help swallerin’ the whale.  I—­I kind of wish you’d be on hand at the back door on Sunday mornin’ when Simeon comes to take me away.  You—­you’re about the only real friend I’ve got,’ she says.