e. These pilasters appeared to support a kind of
classic pediment, which was decorated in the middle by a large triple
window in a boldly carved frame, and in each of its smaller angles by
a glazed circular aperture. A large white door, furnished with a
highly-polished brass knocker, presented itself to the rural-looking
road, with which it was connected by a spacious pathway, paved with worn
and cracked, but very clean, bricks. Behind it there were meadows and
orchards, a barn and a pond; and facing it, a short distance along the
road, on the opposite side, stood a smaller house, painted white, with
external shutters painted green, a little garden on one hand and an
orchard on the other. All this was shining in the morning air, through
which the simple details of the picture addressed themselves to the eye
as distinctly as the items of a "sum" in addition.

A second young lady presently came out of the house, across the piazza,
descended into the garden and approached the young girl of whom I have
spoken. This second young lady was also thin and pale; but she was older
than the other; she was shorter; she had dark, smooth hair. Her eyes,
unlike the other's, were quick and bright; but they were not at all
restless. She wore a straw bonnet with white ribbons, and a long, red,
India scarf, which, on the front of her dress, reached to her feet. In
her hand she carried a little key.

"Gertrude," she said, "are you very sure you had better not go to
church?"

Gertrude looked at her a moment, plucked a small sprig from a
lilac-bush, smelled it and threw it away. "I am not very sure of
anything!" she answered.

The other young lady looked straight past her, at the distant pond,
which lay shining between the long banks of fir-trees. Then she said in
a very soft voice, "This is the key of the dining-room closet. I think
you had better have it, if any one should want anything."

"Who is there to want anything?" Gertrude demanded. "I shall be all
alone in the house."

"Some one may come," said her companion.

"Do you mean Mr. Brand?"

"Yes, Gertrude. He may like a piece of cake."

"I don't like men that are always eating cake!" Gertrude declared,
giving a pull at the lilac-bush.

Her companion glanced at her, and then looked down on the ground. "I
think father expected you would come to church," she said. "What shall I
say to him?"

"Say I have a bad headache."

"Would that be true?" asked the elder lady, looking s