"The barber, sir."

"O! it's you, Place; get me my gown and slippers."

"Here, Place, take this cane; hand me that horse-whip."

Down old Springfield descended to his daughter's study. The door was fastened on the inside.

Open the door, I say; open the door; who's within ?"

"Miss Springfield! Are you there, Caroline ?"

"Yes, papa! but I am having my hair dressed."

"Come, come, child, let me in; I want to see you immediately."

The feelings of Caroline and Charles may have been felt, but language cannot offer any picture of them. What was Charles to do? Consternation suspended their resolution; fear kept both at least two paces from the door. To have wept, would have be

1

trayed her; any thing but irresolution might have cost him his life. It was not an enemy in fair fight he had to encounter; it was a supicious, an enraged parent, against whom resistance would have been violence, and a clandestine retreat the sacrifice of his love to the vengeance of her father; and Charles had not even a pair of curling tongs to prove that he had been at work.

It was in this stage of their dilemma, that some one gave an alarm of fire in the house. Every one ran up stairs, for the voice seemed to come from the attics. The admiral, as he scrambled up the main stairs, swearing by all the gods, that " he would burn with the house, whoever had set it on fire."

The coast was cleared in an instant for the lieutenant to get out by the street door, without so much as taking

farewell of Caroline, who had not seen. him escape, till Harriet seized her by the hand, crying, "Don't be afraid, Miss! there's no fire; honly don't tell your papar; 'twas Harriet Foote that cried, Fire! fire! fire!"

"But where's Charles, Harriet ?" "O! he's gone hoff like lightning; glad to get away, God knows: and now for the attics, Miss."

"You wicked thing, Harriet, to frighten all the house so."

"Vell, vell, never mind, Miss, since the poor gentleman's got hoff with a hole skin and sound bones."

"Here, Foote, here's a necklace for you; I'll never forget you."

"Lord bless you, Miss; you be too good to poor I."

"But let's up stairs, Foote."

By the time they had got to the first landing, the admiral and all the

people were coming down, the old gentleman vowing vengeance on the rascal that gave the first alarm. Forgetful of the barber, the admiral called a council of war to find out and punish, by immediate expulsion from his house, the wicked offender. Nearly an hour did the admiral sit in his great chair, investigating this af fair; and he might have sat till this hour, for the more he questioned, the more he was puzzled; every one denied all knowledge of giving the alarm; and Miss Caroline and Harriet Foote, he was sure, were in the study.

Place thought it was Harriet's voice; but Hobbs saw her from the garden watering some flowers in Miss Caroline's museum, and the museum was adjacent to the study.

None of them recollected that from

the museum there was a passage and door to the foot of the servants' stair

case.

After calling them all "the fools and loggerheads that ever a poor man was pestered with," the admiral asked "where the barber was, that he did not come to their assistance?"

"La! papa, he was just done with dressing me, and ran off to be in time for a foreign gentleman at some hotel." "Who saw him go out?" Nobody could tell, for nobody saw him go out. "Who saw him come in ?"

"I saw him come in, sir," cried Place. "Did you open the door to him, Place ?"

"Harriet did, sir."

"What, Foote! are you turned porter ?"

"If.somebody did not turn porter, sir, tradespeople might stand at our