zing at me--and she's a beauty, Lucy;
there's a chance for Gabriel there. Well, you know how deaf Miss Polly
is; if I had said what I wanted to say, that child would have heard
every word, and there was something in her face that held me dumb. Miss
Polly talked and I nodded my head, and that was all. The old soul must
have thought the cat had my tongue." Miss Fanny laughed uneasily as she
made the last remark.

"If Margaret is ill, she should have attention. I will go there this
morning." This was Mrs. Lumsden's decision.

"I'll send the carriage for you as soon as I can run home," said Miss
Fanny. With that she rose to go, and hustled out of the room, but in the
hallway she turned and remarked: "Tell Gabriel that he will have to
lengthen his suspenders, now that Nan has put on long dresses."

"Oh, no!" protested Mrs. Lumsden. "We mustn't put any such nonsense in
Gabriel's head. Nan is for Francis Bethune. If it isn't all arranged it
ought to be. Why, the land of Dorrington joins the land that Bethune
will fall heir to some day, and it seems natural that the two estates
should become one." Gabriel's grandmother had old-fashioned ideas about
marriage.

"Oh, I see!" replied Miss Fanny with a laugh; "you are so intent on
joining the two estates in wedlock that you take no account of the
individuals. But brother Pulaski says that for many years to come, the
more land a man has the poorer he will become."

"Upon my word, I don't see how that can be," responded Mrs. Lumsden.
This was the first faint whiff of the new order that had come to the
nostrils of the dear old lady.

Miss Fanny went home, and in no long time Neighbour Tomlin's carriage
came to the door. At the last moment, Mrs. Lumsden decided that Gabriel
should go with her. "It may be necessary for you to go on an errand. I
presume there are servants there, but I don't know whether they are to
be depended on."

So Gabriel helped his grandmother into the carriage, climbed in after
her, and in a very short time they were at the Gaither Place. The young
woman whom Gabriel had seen in Mr. Goodlett's hack was standing in the
door, and the little frown on her forehead was more pronounced than
ever. She was evidently troubled.

"Good-morning," said Mrs. Lumsden. "I have come to see Margaret. Does
she receive visitors?"

"My name is Margaret, too," said the young woman, after returning Mrs.
Lumsden's salutation, and bowing to Gabriel. "But of course you came to
s