The Charm School
demanding entrance, and his aunt's Mary replying that she had no intention of keeping her out. The next moment Miss Curtis entered and, sinking into a chair, burst into tears, while Miss Hayes, retaining her habitual calm, smiled at Austin over her colleague's head and said, simply:
"It's not quite as bad as that."
"It is, it is," sobbed Moss Curtis. "The little princess—"
"Has anything happened to Elise?"
"No," said Miss Hayes.
"Yes," said Miss Curtis.
Austin looked from one to the other, and Miss Hayes, seeing that Miss Curtis was quite beyond explanation, said, dryly:
"It appears, Mr. Bevans, that charm is like rain and falls upon the just and the unjust. Elise has been charming the new bookkeeper."
"The bookkeeper?" exclaimed Austin, and a sort of physical nausea swept over him.
"They've been carrying on a correspondence through the accounts," said Miss Hayes.
"Such letters!" wailed Miss Curtis. "The cleaning-woman found them in her desk. She asked me if they were any good, and I was about to say no, for they seemed to be just the accounts in the senior course,
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