aping youth, with the desire to conceal age."

"Oh, Kitty, that's the severest speech I ever knew you guilty of!"

"Ill-natured, aye," quoth Kitty, with a comical sigh; "the world's awry
this morning and I must vent my crossness on somebody, so let it be
Peggy. But if I can carry her your note it will atone for my peevish
speech a dozen times, for is not Captain Sir John Faulkner coming, and
you know as well as all of us that Peggy's airs and graces are most
apparent in his company."

Betty looked quickly up into Kitty's face as she rattled on gayly, and
detected an air of trouble and anxiety that was most unusual. And as
they presently followed Clarissa downstairs, she paused at the landing
and slid her little fingers into Kitty's as she whispered:--

"What's amiss? You are worried, I perceive; can I help you?" Kitty
started, and turning her head over her shoulder said softly:--

"Not now, but I know that you are true-hearted and quick-witted; I dare
not say one word more," and with an affectionate pressure, she dropped
Betty's hand and ran swiftly down the staircase.

The drawing-room in the Verplanck mansion was high of ceiling, a
spacious, stately room, and its quaint, straight-backed chairs, stuffed
ottomans, and carved mahogany sofas were the acme of elegance of those
days. The highly polished floor had received extra attention from Pompey
and his assistants, while the mirrors shone brightly and reflected the
candles of the brass sconces on either side of their glittering
surfaces. Betty, at Clarissa's request, superintended the placing of the
card-tables, and also that of a huge silver salver, on which the tiny
cups for chocolate and the tall glasses for mulled wine would be served
from a table in the dining-room early in the evening before supper; also
a famous bowl of Indian china, where hot caudle would appear, caudle
being an English compound with which Betty was not familiar. Peter
explained it to her with due regard to detail; and smacked his lips over
the bottle as it smoked away on Dinah's kitchen table, where he had
invited Betty to come out and see it.

"Dinah makes a sort of posset first, of oaten-meal, and then she puts in
coriander seeds, and raisins, all carefully stoned (I ought to know
that, for I helped her one mortal hour last night and got my fingers
sticky with the plagued stones), and some cloves in a muslin bag, which
are let lie till the caudle boils, and then removed, and last of al