atures, and quite ladies. They had been down
before to see the cottage and to have it done up. It looks quite a
different place already,--nicely painted, and the shrubs trimmed. The
door was open, and as I stood at Mrs. Crump's window, peeping between
her geraniums, I saw such a respectable gray-haired woman, like an
upper servant, carrying something into the house; and a moment after
one of those young ladies we saw in the Library--not the pretty one,
but the other--came to the door and spoke to the men."

"Are you sure you did not make a mistake, Mattie?" asked her brother,
incredulously. "You are very short-sighted: perhaps you did not see
correctly. How can those stylish-looking girls live in such a shabby
place? I can hardly believe it possible."

"Oh, it was the same, I am positive about that. She was in the same
cambric dress you admired. I could see distinctly. I watched her for a
long time; and then the pretty one came out and joined her. She is
pretty, Archie, she has such a lovely complexion."

"But are they poor?--they don't look so. What on earth can it mean?"
he asked, in a perplexed voice; but Mattie only shook her head, and
went on:

"We must find out all about them by and by. They are worth knowing, I
am sure of that. Poor?--well, they cannot be rich, certainly, to live
in the Friary; but they are gentle-people, one can see that in a
moment."

"Of course! who doubted it?" was the somewhat impatient answer.

"Well, but that is not all," went on Mattie, too delighted with her
brother's interest to try to curtail her story. "Of course I could not
stand long watching them, so I did my errand and came away; and then I
met Miss Middleton, and we walked down to the Library together to
change those books. Miss Milner was talking to some ladies when we
first went in and, as Miss Masham was not in the shop, we had to wait
our turn, so I had a good look at them. The elder one was such a
pretty, aristocratic-looking woman,--a little too languid, perhaps
for my taste; and the younger one was a little like Isabel, only
nicer-looking. I shouldn't have stared at them so much,--at least, I
am afraid I stared," went on Mattie, forgetting for the moment how
often she had been taken to task for this very thing,--"but something
Miss Milner said attracted my attention, 'I am not to send it to the
Friary, then, ma'am?' 'Well, no,' the lady returned, rather
hesitatingly. She had such a nice voice and manner, Archie. 'My