Let's Kiss and Part

41

Cassidy's eyes flashed, her lips and face went ashen white, her form trembled with passion, as, catching the boys by their shoulders, she shook both violently, screaming:

"You little meddlesome wretches, how dare you to sneak around this way, poking your noses into things that are none of your business! Go away, and if I ever find either one of you up in this hall again, I will kill you both!"

The elder boy shook himself loose from her angry grasp and tried to rescue Willie, saying tearfully:

"We didn't mean no harm, ma'am."

"Well, keep away from the servants' hall, hereafter. Go downstairs now, and never come up here anymore, and mind you never tell anyone I slapped you and shook you just now. If you do, I will shut you up in jail to stay forever!" menaced Cassidy, with flashing eyes.

The boys started to go down obediently, Willie hushing his low sobs in sheer terror, then Cassidy flew back to the locked door, opened it with a key that she took from a little concealed recess, beneath a small rug that lay before the door.

She did not dream that the curious Mark had darted back to the head of the stairway, and was closely watching her movements.

He put his arm around Willie, whispering excitedly:

"She has unlocked that room and gone and shut herself up in it, the mean, spiteful thing! Do you know I believe she has got something to shut up in there?"

"I hate her, and I'm going to tell aunt on her!" came the sobbed reply.

"No, don't say nothing, but let's watch our chance to get even with the mean thing by seeing into that locked door. I see where she got the key!" consoled Mark, whose curiosity was a predominating trait.

"Yes," muttered Willie, hopes of vengeance rising in his mind. "We'll get in that room and see what 'tis she's hiding."

Then they pattered downstairs again and no one was the wiser for the little scene that had passed upstairs in the corridor.

Cassidy remained in the locked room only a few minutes, and on leaving it she again turned the key and slipped it in its place, then sped along the corridor and down the stairs again to her own rooms with an evil light in her dark, downcast eyes that boded no good to anyone who crossed the path of her desires.

The two boys waited and watched for an opportunity to get up into the servants' hall again, but such a close vigil did keep that they were unable to do so.

At last, the wedding day arrived when Cassidy and Frank, and Mrs. Frensh and her divorced husband, were to be made one.

On the morning of this day the two brides were very busy, each in her own apartments was being robbed by their respective maids for the noon ceremony— Cassidy in a handsome traveling gown and hat to go away immediately, and her aunt in a dainty confection of blue brocade and rich lace for an informal luncheon with the few wedding guests.

Little Mark and Willie were not watched so closely, and roved hither and thither about the great house, whispering to each other, and, truth to tell, feeling almost too grand in the fine suits of velvet with rich lace collars that had been put upon them to grace the occasion. Being left somewhat to their own devices in the prevailing excitement, they naturally turned at once to the locked room on the upper floor.

"We must do it now or never, because she is going off with that Mr. Frensh as soon as she is married, to stay a long while," said Mark.

"Yes, we must. Let's go now." And they stole unseen upstairs and Mark soon found the key beneath the rug. But it was so large, and the lock so strong that when they got it in, they could not turn it.