you the least uneasiness will
be when you come to make up your mind in the choice of your guardian.
That will be on your eighteenth birthday,--the 20th, I think, of the
present month."

Carry was silent.

"Pray do not think that I am here to receive your decision, even if it
be already made. I only came to inform you that your stepmother, Mrs.
Starbottle, will be in town to-morrow, and will pass a few days at the
hotel. If it is your wish to see her before you make up your mind, she
will be glad to meet you. She does not, however, wish to do any thing to
influence your judgment."

"Does mother know she is coming?" said Carry hastily.

"I do not know," said Prince gravely. "I only know, that, if you
conclude to see Mrs. Starbottle, it will be with your mother's
permission. Mrs. Starbottle will keep sacredly this part of the
agreement, made ten years ago. But her health is very poor; and the
change and country quiet of a few days may benefit her." Mr. Prince bent
his keen, bright eyes upon the young girl, and almost held his breath
until she spoke again.

"Mother's coming up to-day or to-morrow," she said, looking up.

"Ah!" said Mr. Prince with a sweet and languid smile.

"Is Col. Starbottle here too?" asked Carry, after a pause.

"Col. Starbottle is dead. Your stepmother is again a widow."

"Dead!" repeated Carry.

"Yes," replied Mr. Prince. "Your step-mother has been singularly
unfortunate in surviving her affections."

Carry did not know what he meant, and looked so. Mr. Prince smiled
re-assuringly.

Presently Carry began to whimper.

Mr. Prince softly stepped beside her chair.

"I am afraid," he said with a very peculiar light in his eye, and a
singular dropping of the corners of his mustache,--"I am afraid you are
taking this too deeply. It will be some days before you are called upon
to make a decision. Let us talk of something else. I hope you caught no
cold last evening."

Carry's face shone out again in dimples.

"You must have thought us so queer! It was too bad to give you so much
trouble."

"None, whatever, I assure you. My sense of propriety," he added
demurely, "which might have been outraged, had I been called upon to
help three young ladies out of a schoolroom window at night, was deeply
gratified at being able to assist them in again." The door-bell rang
loudly, and Mr. Prince rose. "Take your own time, and think well before
you make your decision." But Carry's ear and attention we