f course, Aunt Patsy's brain is cracked, and she didn't know what
she was talking about. I shall keep the shoes, however, and if ever the
venerable purple sun-bonnet runs afoul of me, I shall hold them up before
it and see what happens."

And so, very well satisfied with the result of his visit to Hewlett's,
he rode on to the Green Sulphur Springs.

On the afternoon of the next day Miss March received an invitation from
Mrs Keswick to spend a few days with her, and make the acquaintance of
her niece who had recently returned to the home of her childhood. The
letter, for it was much more than a note of invitation, was cordial, and
in parts pathetic. It dwelt upon the sundered pleasant relations of the
two families, and expressed the hope that Mr Brandon's visit to her
might be the beginning of a renewal of the old intimacy. Mrs Keswick
took occasion to incidentally mention that the house would be
particularly dull for her niece just now, as Junius was on the point of
starting for Washington, where he would be detained some weeks on
business; and she hoped, most earnestly, that Miss Roberta would accept
this invitation to make her acquaintance and that of her niece; and she
designated Thursday of the following week as the day on which she would
like her to come.

As may reasonably be supposed, this letter greatly astonished Miss
March, who carried it to her uncle, and asked him to explain, if he
could, what it meant. The old gentleman was a good deal surprised when
he read it; but it delighted him in a far greater degree. He perceived
in it the first fruits of his diplomacy. Mrs Keswick saw that it would
be to her interest, for a time at least, to make friends with him; and
this was the way she took to do it. She would not come to Midbranch
herself, and bring the niece, but she would have Roberta come to her. In
the pathos and cordiality Mr Brandon believed not at all. What the old
hypocrite probably wanted was to enlist his grateful sympathy in that
ridiculous divorce case. But, whatever her motives might be, he would be
very glad to have his niece go to her; for if anything could make an
impression upon that time-hardened and seasoned old chopping-block of a
woman, it was Roberta's personal influence. If Mrs Keswick should come
to know Roberta, that knowledge would do more than anything else in the
world to remove her objections to the marriage he so greatly desired.

He said nothing of all this to his niece; but he