tious
sigh. "I've made out a list: there's plenty of money, isn't there?"

Miss Featherstone had the care of the money and accounts: "Yes,"
hesitatingly; "that is--"

"No matter," interrupted Mrs. Pinckney. "I have accounts at hosts of
places. The carriage is ordered to take you to the station: will you be
ready, dear, at ten o'clock?"

Miss Featherstone looked at her watch and hurried to her room.

It was snowing when she returned from New York: great flakes fell on
her as she stepped, loaded with bundles, out of the carriage. The
children met her with joyful whoops at the front door: "Oh, here's
clear little Miss Featherstone, and we know she's got our Christmas
presents.--You can't deny it. Hurrah!"

They dragged her into the dining-room, where the table, decked with
flowers, was handsomely arranged for dinner. A blazing wood-fire roared
on the hearth: in front of it stood a tall, handsome man with a
military air. He was dark, with brilliant eyes, a certain regularity of
features, and, as his passport declared, his hair was dark brown and
curly. Colonel Pinckney looked haughty and impenetrable, as his
sister-in-law had described him. Mrs. Pinckney, exquisitely dressed,
reclined in a large chair by the corner of the fireplace: she held up a
pretty fan to screen her face from the heat, and was talking gayly to
her brother-in-law. At a table in a corner Mr. Brown, by the light of a
large lamp, was endeavoring, with great difficulty, to read an English
paper.

"Oh, mamma, see poor little Miss Featherstone loaded down with boxes
and bundles!" shrieked the children, dragging her up to the fire.

"Dear children, do go and get Adele to take them," said their
mother.--"Here, Mary," to a servant who entered, "carry these packages
up to my dressing-room.--There are more in the carriage?" in reply to a
remark of Miss Featherstone.--"Adele," to her maid, who stood at the
door, "bring in everything you find in the carriage."

Two or three weeks passed, and Colonel Pinckney made no sign of
departure. In spite of his unsocial tendencies, he drove and dined out
with his sister-in-law, for many nice people chose this winter to
remain at their country-houses. He took long walks by himself, and made
inroads into the school-room, for he was very fond of the children.
Mrs. Pinckney was less frequently indisposed, and exerted herself in a
measure to entertain him. She never, by any accident, occupied herself,
and was one morning