CHAPTER XIII.
A MYSTERIOUS VISITOR About eleven o'clock one forenoon Mrs.Harding was in the kitchen, busily engaged in preparing the dinner, when a loud knock was heard at the front door.
"Who can it be ?" said Mrs.Harding.

"Aunt Rachel, there's somebody at the door; won't you be kind enough to see who it is ?" "People have no business to call at such an hour in the morning," grumbled Rachel, as she laid down her knitting reluctantly, and rose from her seat.

"Nobody seems to have any consideration for anybody else.
But that's the way of the world." Opening the outer door, she saw before her a tall woman, dressed in a gown of some dark stuff, with strongly marked, and not altogether pleasant, features.
"Are you the lady of the house ?" inquired the visitor, abruptly.
"There ain't any ladies in this house," answered Rachel.

"You've come to the wrong place.

We have to work for a living here." "The woman of the house, then," said the stranger, rather impatiently.
"It doesn't make any difference about names.