down Mr. Kingsland's horse waits
upon table, and there is nobody else but a housekeeper. But
Mr. Morton is thinking he will call too; and Mr. Morton is a
man of means; he owns a large part of Mill Hollow, called also
Morton Hollow. He occupies a great old brick house in the
neighbourhood of the Hollow, and keeps it in excellent repair,
and the grass of the lawn is well shaven. Mr. Morton is well
off and has servants enough, but he has years enough too; Mr.
Morton must be forty. Nevertheless he thinks he will call.

Then there is Mrs. ex-Governor Powder also; she lives in a
very good house, and in an irreproachable manner, at a fine
place called Valley Garden, ten miles off. Mrs. Powder is an
excellent woman, a stately lady, knows what is what, and has
been a beauty, and held a court of her own. Indeed she is of a
proud old family, and married a little beneath her when she
married the man who afterwards became Governor Powder. But
what would you have? Women must be married. Mrs. Powder will
come to see Miss Kennedy; she is thinking about it; but
probably she will not come till to-morrow or the day after;
she is not in a hurry. Mme. Lasalle is; and so is the
gentleman of the roses, her nephew. Meanwhile Miss Kennedy
knows nothing of all this, nor how furthermore the Lawyer's
wife and the Doctor's mother (for there is another doctor at
Crocus) are meditating how soon they may ask Miss Kennedy to
dinner or to supper, and how soon it will do to go and ask
her. They are afraid of seeming in a hurry. Meanwhile Miss
Kennedy eats her breakfast.

Breakfast is had in the stone hall, with the doors open front
and rear and the Summer day looking in at them. It is very
pleasant, and the old black woman, Portia, comes and goes
without interfering with the talk at table. The sewing machine
stands at one side of the hall still.

'What new affair have you got there, my daughter?' says the
doctor.

'It's a sewing machine, papa, which Duke has brought me.'

'A sewing machine! What are you going to do with it?'

'Put her work in her pocket, I hope, sir. I am tired of seeing
it in her hand.'

'It is very good of you, Duke; but can she manage it?'

'Not yet, sir. Neither of us can. We are going to find out.'

'Well, what's the advantage of it?'

'I brought it up, sir, in the hope and persuasion that it
would undertake the clothing of all the poor people at Crocus,
and give Rosy time to read philosophy.'

'Why papa,' said Ro