is a real pleasure to see him
looking so well and vigorous. He really looks like a young man."

"Don't speak to me of James Stedman!" exclaimed Mrs. Tree. "I never
wish to hear his name again."

"Aunt Marcia! dear James Stedman! Our old and valued friend!"

"Old and valued fiddlestick! Who wanted him to come back? Why couldn't
he stay where he was, and poison the foreigners? He might have been of
some use there."

Miss Vesta looked distressed.

"Aunt Marcia," she said, gently, "I cannot feel as if I ought to let
even you speak slightingly of Doctor Stedman. Of course we all feel
deeply the loss of dear Geoffrey; I am sure no one can feel it more
deeply than Phoebe and I do. The house is so empty without him; he
kept it full of sunshine and joy. But that should not make us forgetful
of Doctor Stedman's life-long devotion and--"

"Speaking of devotion," said Mrs. Tree, "has he asked you to marry him
yet? How many times does that make?"

Miss Vesta went very pink, and rose from her seat with a gentle dignity
which was her nearest approach to anger.

"I think I will leave you now, Aunt Marcia," she said. "I will come
again to-morrow, when you are more composed. Good-by."

"Yes, run along!" said Mrs. Tree, and her voice softened a little. "I
don't want you to-day, Vesta, that's the truth. Send me Phoebe, or
Malvina Weight. I want something to 'chaw on,' as Direxia said just
now."

"The dogs! I was going to say," exclaimed Direxia, using one of her
strongest expressions. "You never heard me, now, Mis' Tree!"

"I never hear anything else!" said the old lady. "Go away, both of you,
and let me hear myself think."

CHAPTER II.

MISS PHOEBE'S OPINIONS

"I cannot see that your aunt looks a day older than she did twenty years
ago," said Dr. James Stedman.

Miss Vesta Blyth looked up in some trepidation, and the soft color came
into her cheeks.

"You have called on her, then, James," she said. "I am truly glad. How
did she--that is, I am sure she was rejoiced to see you, as every one in
the village is."

Doctor Stedman chuckled, and pulled his handsome gray beard. "She may
have been rejoiced," he said; "I trust she was. She said first that she
hoped I had come back wiser than I went, and when I replied that I hoped
I had learned a little, she said she could not abide new-fangled
notions, and that if I expected to try any experiments on her I would
find myself mistaken. Yes, I find her quite unchanged,