“She did?” asked Mrs. Jordon in a quick voice, a light seeming to have flashed upon her mind.

“Yes,” I replied, “for I was in the kitchen when she got the lard and meal, and Bridget mentioned the coffee as soon as I came down this morning.”

“Strange!” Mrs. Jordon looked thoughtful.  “It isn’t a week since we got coffee, and I am sure our Indian meal cannot be out.”

“Almost every week Nancy borrows a pound or a half pound of butter on the day before your butter man comes; and more than that, doesn’t return it, or indeed anything she gets more than a third of the time.”

“Precisely the complaint I have to make against you,” said Mrs. Jordon, looking me steadily in the face.

“Then,” said I “there is something wrong somewhere, for to my knowledge nothing has been borrowed from you or any body else for months.  I forbid anything of the kind.”

“Be that as it may, Mrs. Smith; Nancy frequently comes to me and says you have sent in for this, that, and the other thing—­coffee, tea, sugar, butter; and, in fact, almost everything used in a family.”

“Then Nancy gets them for her own use,” said I.

“But I have often seen Bridget in myself for things.”

“My Bridget!” I said, in surprise.

I instantly rang the bell.

“Tell Bridget I want her,” said I to the waiter who came to the door.  The cook soon appeared.

“Bridget, are you in the habit of borrowing from Mrs. Jordon without my knowledge?”

“No, ma’am!” replied the girl firmly, and without any mark of disturbance in her face.

“Din’t you get a bar of soap from our house yesterday?” asked Mrs. Jordon.

“Yes, ma’am,” returned Bridget, “but it was soap you owed us.”

“Owed you!”

“Yes, Ma am.  Nancy got a bar of soap from me last washing-day, and I went in for it yesterday.”

“But Nancy told me you wanted to borrow it,” said Mrs. Jordon.

“Nancy knew better,” said Bridget, with a face slightly flushed; but any one could see that it was a flush of indignation.

“Will you step into my house and tell Nancy I want to see her?”

“Certainly, ma’am.”  And Bridget retired.

“These servants have been playing a high game, I fear,” remarked Mrs. Jordon, after Bridget had left the room.  “Pardon me, if in my surprise I have spoken in a manner that has seemed offensive.”

“Most certainly there is a game playing that I know nothing about, if anything has been borrowed of you in my name for these three months,” said I.

“I have heard of your borrowing something or other almost every day during the time you mention,” replied Mrs. Jordon.  “As for me, I have sent into you a few times; but not oftener, I am sure, than once in a week.”

Bridget returned, after having been gone several minutes, and said Nancy would be in directly.  We waited for some time, and then sent for her again.  Word was brought back that she was nowhere to be found in the house.