ses," said he, "want to go home, especially at dinner-time."

"But the old brown did not," urged Mrs. Cliff. "That is the sort of
horse I want."

"Some very old beast might please you better," said he; "but really,
Mrs. Cliff, that is not the sort of horse you should have. He would die
or break down in a little while, and then you would have to get another.
What you should do is to have a good horse and a driver. You might get a
two-seated carriage, either open or closed, and go anywhere and
everywhere, and never think of the horse."

That was not the thing she longed for; that would not bring back the
happy days when she drove the brown through the verdant lanes. If she
must have a driver, she might as well hire a cab and be driven about.
But she told Mr. Williams to get her a suitable vehicle, and she would
have Andrew Marks to drive her; and she and Willy Croup walked sadly
home.

As to the cow, she succeeded better. She bought a fairly good one, and
Willy undertook to milk her and to make butter.

"Now, what have I done so far?" said Mrs. Cliff, on the evening of the
day when the cow came home. "I have a woman to cook, I have a new
kitchen door, and I have a cow! I do not count the horse and the wagon,
for if I do not drive, myself, I shall not feel that they are mine in
the way that I want them to be."

CHAPTER V

A FUR-TRIMMED OVERCOAT AND A SILK HAT

Mrs. Cliff now began to try very hard to live as she ought to live,
without pretensions or snobbery, but in a style becoming, in some
degree, her great fortune.

There was one thing she determined to do immediately, and that was, to
begin a series of hospitalities,--and it made her feel proud to think
that she could do this and do it handsomely, and yet do it in the old
home where everybody knew she had for years been obliged to practise the
strictest economy.

She gave a dinner to which she invited her most select friends. Mr. and
Mrs. Perley were there, and the Misses Thorpedyke, two maiden ladies who
constituted the family of the highest social pretension of Plainton.
There were other people who were richer, but Miss Eleanor Thorpedyke,
now a lady of nearly seventy, and her sister Barbara, some ten years
younger, belonged to the very best family in that part of the country,
and were truly the aristocrats of the place.

But they had always been very friendly with Mrs. Cliff, and they were
glad to come to her dinner. The other guests were all g