required?"

[Pg 30]

"You wished a secretary, I understood."

"A social secretary."

"Yes; they told me that."

"Would you mind giving me some idea of your experience?"

Mary hesitated. She had not prepared herself for this; she was neither forehanded nor wise in the ways of fraud.

"Perhaps," she managed to say. "You would like to see some references."

She tried to placate her conscience in that speech; it seemed a smaller lie than saying "my" references.

"If you please," and Aunt Caroline adjusted her spectacles.

The references came out of Mary's bag. As the mistress of the Marshall mansion took them Mary was thinking:

"Now I am a forger as well as a liar."

Aunt Caroline read the first slowly and aloud, and looked up to find her caller blushing.

"Oh, I am sure it must be honest praise, my dear. Do I confuse you by reading aloud?"

She passed to the next, glancing first at the signature.

"Why," exclaimed Aunt Caroline, "it's from Mrs. Rokeby-Jones. Is it the Mrs. Rokeby-Jones?"

Now, Mary had never heard of the lady. She did not know whether she was "the," or merely "a," and to cover the point without committing herself to the unknown she nodded. Aunt Caroline nodded in return and read the reference.

"I am very pleasantly surprised, Miss Norcross,"[Pg 31] she said. "This is what I should call a very distinguished reference. Of course, we all know Mrs. Rokeby-Jones; that is, I mean, by reputation. Personally, I have never had the pleasure of meeting her. You see, my dear, I am 

 Prev. P 25/230 next