44
MRS.   FIZZLEBURY'S   NEW   GIRL.
4.
might ln some way be connected with the subject
of the letter in her bosom. Her color heightened,
and Parkin proceeded with his somewhat incohe-
rent explanation.
"Hush! Don't scream, I beg and entreat you.
Have you received his letters? He fears they may
have miscarriea, and is distracted at the thought
of their haying been intercepted. Hush! don't
scream. I am his confidant—his friend—though
you now behold me in this menial garb. I am not
what I seem. I am here to serve him and to serve
you.   Trust me."
The light, in all its splendor, broke at once on
Arabella's mind. The Count had said in his letter
that his servant was in his confidence. This was
the servant; and how delicate of him to send to
her assistance a female domestic inst ad of—as
she had feared—a man-servant. Parkin's appear-
ance, just as Arabella was packing for her flight
with the Count, tallied exactly with the advices
just to hand.   A faint scream escaped her.
"I am so glad and thankful that you have
come," said Arabella. (Parkin grinned with de-
light at his success, so far.) I have this moment
received another letter from the dear fellow. He
will be here this evening at nine o'clock, with a
carriage. He writes me that you will be here to
aid in the elopement. We will fly." (Parkin's
brow became clouded.)
In fact this news staggered Parkin. It struck
him as most unfriendly and improper on the part
of Potthausen, that, after intrusting the whole af-
fair to him (Parkin) yesterday, he (Pott) should
write another letter to-day, through some other
channel, and arrange an elopement without his
(Parkin's) knowledge and connivance. He was
puzzled. But perhaps Pott had received a letter
from Arabella after the departure of Parkin from
Potthausen's apartments the evening before. It
would be highly indelicate to ask too many ques-
tions at that moment; and at any rate, it was
clear that Pott counted on the New Girl's assist-
ance in the matter, since he had mentioned Par-
kin in the letter just received by Miss Fizzlebury.
It, at least, spared him the degrading necessity of
explaining that the new girl was a man in female
attire.
" This evening at nine, is it? " said Parkin, puz-
zled.
"Yes," replied Arabella, "at nine. Go to him
at once, and let him know that I am resolved to
follow his advice, and will be ready."
Here was a fresh difficulty. Parkin could not
or would not, go into the street in his costume.
In the bundle which he had brought with him
there were only his coat and pantaloons—nothing
more. And it was clear that if he wenl out to de-
liver the message, he would have to return, as he
was depended on for assistance in the elopement.
Yet a refusal to go, at the bidding of Miss Fizzle-
bury, would seem churlish, and might lead her to
suspect his fidelity.
"I can not leave you, Miss Fizzlebury," said
Parkin. "I promised him that I would not leave
you for a moment, and I will not. But believe
me, I shall find means of communication with
your lover. Lend me a pencil and an envelope,
and trust to me."
"Nay," answered Arabella, throwing into her
voice all the coyness she could command; "it will
perhaps be more gratifying to him if 1 write, and
I will do so discreetly, without signature or ad-
elopement be intended, I fear you have gone too far in
your zeal for my interests; for I am free to confess that
I am not. In any way, prepared for such a course. But
I wi II be with you, nevertheless, at the hour which you
have appointed. As for you, my dear Parkin, you are
indeed a trump; and there is nothing in my power that
I would not do for you In return for your great kind-
ness. Go on and prosper.
Yours in haste, and deeply grateful,              O. P.
This letter was extremely puzzling to Parkin.
"If an elopement be intended?" What could
Pott possibly mean by this remark after his letter
to Arabella, wherein he himself had proposed this
step? Was he, at the critical moment, going to
back out of the course which he himself had
suggested, and, indeed, urged? That would be
dishonorable to the last degree. " And, by Jove! "
thought Parkin, "it he Bhow the white feather
now, he will doubly dishonor me. No, no! The
girl expects an elopement, and an elopement she
shall have, if I have to do it myself; though she
isn't exactly the girl that I would fancy."
Several times in the course of the evening, he
sought speech with Arabella in order to obtain an
explanation; but he was always balked by the
mother's being in the parlor with her daughter.
He even volunteered to take dishes to the table at
dinner, and he went so far as to wait on the fam-
ily at that meal, where he made the most absurd
signs to Arabella that he desired speech with her
alone. She, poor girl, supposing that his horrible
grimaces were intended only to let her know that
he was on the alert for her sake, merely smiled at
him behind her table napkin, but, of course, said
nothing.
At length, and most unfortunately, Mr. Fizzle-
bury caught Parkin in the act of winking at Ara-
bella and making, generally, a most hideous pic-
ture of his countenance.
"What on earth," said Mr. Fizzlebury, "is the
matter with the woman?   Mary, what ails you?"
Parkin's face immediately resumed the absurd
expression which the red wig and the handker-
chief tied under his chin had imparted to it, and
answered:
"It's the pain, sir. I've been quite bad all the
day, sir."
"Then you had better remain in the kitchen,"
said Mrs. Fizzlebury, "till you are ready to go
home. I have been to the Intelligence Office and
they have promised me another girl to-morrow
morning.   Go down stairs."
Parkin, accordingly, retired to the kitchen and
resumed his seat in the seatless chair, to wait, with
all the patience be could command, for nine
o'clock; while Arabella underwent a similar try-
ing process in her own room up stairs.
At about half-past seven o'clock, however, cir-
cumstances occurred which changed entirely the
aspect of affairs.
"It will indeed be most gratifying to him," ex-
claimed the delighted Parkin.
And Miss Arabella wrote:
I have seen your servant, and we understand each
other perfectly. I await you at the hour appointed, and
shall be ready.
Devotedly and confidingly thine,                       A.
"Admirable!" cried Parkin. "I will direct it
below, and dispatch it immediately."
Chapter XIV.—There is some Confusion in
the Correspondence.
On his return to the kitchen, Parkin was in-
formed by Cook that the "ould woman " had gone
out and would not be back before five o'clock—a
providential circumstance! Nothing could be
more fortunate. He added to Arabella's note a
brief line, by way of postscript from himself, say-
ing: "Send your answer addressed to me (Mary
Murphy) '—closed the envelope, and directed it to
O. Potthausen, Esq., and dispatched it by Cook-
for which service that unconscious confederate in
Parkin's wickedness received another fee of one
dollar. Cook was to convey the letter only to the
corner grocery, where a messenger was to be em-
ployed to take the epistle to its address.
And now Parkin, having no menial work to
perform, by reason of his previous financial ar-
rangement with his fellow-servant (how true it is
that some persons have riches tnrust upon them!)
was left to bridle his anxiety and endure the tor-
ture of his wig as well as he could until nine
o'clock. He haa been just twenty-four hours in
the Fizzlebury service when he' received Pott-
hausen's answer, duly addressed to "Mary Mur-
phy."
A million thanks, my dear Parkin, for yonrmost val-
uable assistance, which has succeeded beyond my most
«anguine hopes. 1 will be there at nine o'clock with a
carriage as you direct; but what tlie carriage is needed
lor 1 can not, for the life of me, understand.   If an
Chapter XV-
-Highly Detrimental to the New
Girl's Character.
It was between seven and eight o'clock, and
Parkin was waiting anxiously for the hour of
nine, when Mr. and Mrs. Fizzlebury walked sol-
emnly into the kitchen, and, confronting Parkin
and the other girl, opened a terrible battery on
them in so systematic a manner as showed that
their employers were not new to this perform-
ance.
"Now just look here, girls, both of you," said
Mr. Fizzlebury, with the air of a judge who
scarcely deemed it necessary to listen to evidence
before pronouncing sentence; "I am a very
peaceful man, and a very quiet man; but I am
not to be imposed on; and I assure you that it
will be the best for the culprit to make a clean
breast of it at once, and tell the truth without
evasion. Mrs. Fizzlebury, when she went out
this afternoon, left a brooch on her dressing-
table—"
"A cameo brooch," interrupted Mrs. Fizzlebury,
" in a gold setting—worth eighty dollars."
"That brooch," resumed Mr. Fizzlebury, "is
gone. Nobody has been here to take it, but you
two girls. One of you must have it. Now, give it up
instantly, or I'll have your trunks and your persons
searched!"
Parkin's first impulse, on hearing this little ora-
tion, was to give Mr. Fizzlebury just "one" in his
eye and floor him. Prudence, however, restrained
our hero. He smiled contemptuously on Mrs. Fiz-
z»ebury, and bestowed on her husband a wither-
ing gaz,e, which had about as much effect on the
old gentleman as if Parkin had simply requested
him to go up stairs to bed.
Cook, on the other hand, set up a terrible hulla-
baloo. She denounced the house and all its in-
mates; declared that such a charge had never be-
fore been laid at her door; and actually foamed at
the mouth in her fury.
Mrs. Fizzlebury was equally vociferous, though
not quite so vulgar in her remarks; and Mr. Fiz-
zlebury seeing that the brooch was not forthcom
ing, sallied out for a policeman, with whom he
speedily returned.
Then the scolding on the one side, the recrim-
inations on the other, and the repeated calling
of the parties to order by the policeman, com-
bined to make a deafening clamor which might
have been, and possibly was, heard at the
corner.
The policeman immediately instituted himself a
court of inquiry, and gathered such particulars as
could be got together out of the hurricane of word,
now raging around him.
"Comenow, my girl," at length said the office,
to Parkin. "Come now; if you have taken thai
brooch, just give it up at once and be done with
it*
"Hang your insolence!" answered Parkin now
thoroughly aroused. "But I'll catch you some,
where, my fine fellow, where I shall not be com
polled to hold my tongue, and then—"
" You threaten, do you? " said the policeman.
"That's a dangerous woman, ma'am," he re
marked, speaking to Mrs. Fizzlebury, and indicate
ing Parkin; "that's a dangerous woman, and I
think I've seen her face in the police court before
now, and more than once. Did you have a char
acter with her? It's my belief that she has taken
your brooch."
" I must insist on her being searched," cried Mrs.
Fizzlebury.
"I can't search her myself, ma'am," said the of.
ficer. "It's not allowed for us to search women
But if you will let some one go round for the'
matron, who does the searching of the female pris-
oners, that girl shall be searched immediately. I
will wait here to see that she doesn't make away
with any thing that's about her person. She's ev-
idently a bad woman."
Whereupon Mr. Fizzlebury himself departed in
search of the matron; while Cook, full of the cow-
ardly, cringing spirit peculiar to her class, and
thinking that, if there really were a culprit in the
case, she han better take steps toward clearing her-
self began to turn State's " evidence," and to im-
plicate her fellow servant.
"I niver," said, or rather sobbed, Cook, "in all
the places I lived in, I niver yit was accused of
takin' a ha'porth of any thing that didn't belong
to me. I'm a poor girl, but I'm honest. Butwhia
other girls is brought into the house wid you, wid
their pockets full of money—Lord knows how they
gits it—it looks queer it does, an' it's hard for an
honest hard-workin' girl to suffer for other peo-
ple's badness, so it is."
These remarks led the officer to make farther
inquiries, which resulted in the exposure of the
fact that the New Girl had " heaps of money "
in her pocket. All of which looked very black,
indeed, against Parkin, who felt really alarmed
when Mr. Fizzlebury returned with the female
searcher.
Cook at once expressed herself willing to under-
fo the ordeal. "Sarch me first, sir, av you plaise,
t's the first time that such a thing was iver asked
of me; but sarch away, and all you'll find won't
hurt you nor me neither."
The female searcher, who was a stout, muscular
woman, retired with Cook into the laundry, and
presently returned, declaring that the woman had
nothing but a little paper of snuff and a vial or
half-pint flask containing whisky.
"Now then," exclaimed the policeman, indicat-
ing Parkin, "search that girl."
"Stay one moment," cried Parkin. "What
money I may have had or may now have about me
is nobody's business but my own. And as to the
brooch which that old fool—(you may imagine
Mrs. Fizzlebury's indignation on hearing herself
so designated by a servant)—as to the brooch
which that old fool pretends to have lost, I know
nothing about it, I have no objection whatever
to undergo this most humiliating process; but
no woman shall searcii me. Policeman, you may
do it if you like, but don't let that woma'n touch
me."
This was altogether a most natural, proper and
decent exception for Parkin to take to the project-
ed ordeal. But Mrs. Fizzlebury and the cook, still
believing Parkin to be of their sex, simultaneously
raised aery of indignation at "the brazen shame-
lessness of the imoudent hussy." (The gentle reader
must endeavor to fancy Parkin a " hussy.") The
policeman, himself, blushed to the eyes at Parkin's
suggestion. At this moment the sound of wheels
outside was heard, as of a carriage stopping in
front of the house.
Chapter XVI.—The Melancholy Exposcbe.
Parkip's agitation was now intense. The car-
riage was at the door. Potthausen would be ex-
pecting to see the New Girl, at any moment, leave
the house and come to explain to him the mean-
ing of the suggestion regarding the necessity for
the vehicle. Arabella, also, would be waiting for
him to convey her out of the house, and into tbe
arms of her impatient lover. Yet, there was Par-
kin, held at bay by an officer of the law on an ab-
surd accusation of larceny, at the instance of two
persons whom he regarded with unspeakable con-
tempt, as the greatest idiots he had ever encoun-
tered in all his life. In his excitement hestampeo.
on the floor, and, with the intention of pulling nis
hair out by the roots, he so misplaced the red wig,
which, in his fury, he had forgotten, as nearly W
expose to the persons around him the fact that M
wore one.                                                       . ,
"Finish your confounded folly at,once,"criea
Parkin, " and let me go. I have a most particu-
lar engagement, and can not wait here for your
nonsense, you infernal idiots. Here, officer, here
are twenty dollars for you. Let me leave tms
beastly den immediately. I have a most in}P°i[
tant appointment, and—here in your ear—1 an»
not what I seem."   And he held forth to the P»-