ver, this cheery
winter night, it was one of dear Miss Pennington's "Next Thursdays;"
she could not see that the young architect, living away over there
in the hundred-year-old house on the side of East Hill, a boarder
with old Miss Arabel Waite, had been found, and appreciated, and
drawn into their circle by the Haddens and the Penningtons and the
Holabirds and the Inglesides; and that Rosamond was showing him the
pleasant things in their Westover life,--her "swan's nest among the
reeds," that she had told him of,--that early autumn evening, when
they had walked up Hanley Street together.

XVI.

SWARMING.

Spring came on early, with heavy rains and freshets in many parts of
the country.

It was a busy time at Z----.

Two things had happened there that were to give Kenneth Kincaid more
work, and would keep him where he was all summer.

Just before he went to Z----, there had been a great fire at West
Hill. All Mr. Roger Marchbanks's beautiful place was desolate.
House, conservatories, stables, lovely little vine-covered rustic
buildings, exquisitely tended shrubbery,--all swept over in one
night by the red flames, and left lying in blackness and ashes.

For the winter, Mr. Marchbanks had taken his family to Boston; now
he was planning eagerly to rebuild. Kenneth had made sketches; Mr.
Marchbanks liked his ideas; they had talked together from time to
time. Now, the work was actually in hand, and Kenneth was busy with
drawings and specifications.

Down at the river, during the spring floods, a piece of the bridge
had been carried away, and the dam was broken through. There were
new mill buildings, too, going up, and a block of factory houses.
All this business, through Mr. Marchbanks directly or indirectly,
fell also into Kenneth's hands.

He wrote blithe letters to Dorris; and Dorris, running in and out
from her little spring cleanings that Hazel was helping her with,
told all the letters over to the Ripwinkleys.

"He says I must come up there in my summer vacation and board with
his dear old Miss Waite. Think of Kentie's being able to give me
such a treat as that! A lane, with ferns and birches, and the
woods,--_pine_ woods!--and a hill where raspberries grow, and the
river!"

Mrs. Ledwith was thinking of her summer plans at this time, also.
She remembered the large four-windowed room looking out over the
meadow, that Mrs. Megilp and Glossy had at Mrs. Prendible's, for
twelve dollars a week, in