lines, looked pensive for a moment. Then its habitual
expression of cheerfulness returned to it, and when she entered the
house Frances Kane looked as practical and business-like a woman as
could be found anywhere in the whole of the large parish in the north
of England where she and her father lived.

Squire Kane, as he was called, came of an old family; and in the days
before Frances was born he was supposed to be rich. Now, however, nearly
all his lands were mortgaged, and it was with difficulty that the long,
low, old-fashioned house, and lovely garden which surrounded it, could
be kept together. No chance at all would the squire have had of spending
his last days in the house where he was born, and where many generations
of ancestors had lived and died, but for Frances. She managed the house
and the gardens, and the few fields which were not let to surrounding
farmers. She managed Watkins, too, and the under-gardener, and the two
men-servants; and, most of all, she managed Squire Kane.

He had been a hale and hearty man in his day, with a vigorous will of
his own, and a marvelous and fatal facility for getting through money;
but now he leaned on Frances, was guided by her in all things; never
took an opinion or spent a shilling without her advice; and yet all the
time he thought himself to be the ruler, and she the ruled. For Frances
was very tactful, and if she governed with a rod of iron, she was clever
enough to incase it well in silk.

"I want you, Frances," called a rather querulous old voice.

The squire was ensconced in the sunniest corner of the sunny old parlor;
his feet were stretched out on a hassock; he wore a short circular cape
over his shoulders, and a black velvet skull-cap was pushed a little
crooked over his high bald forehead. He had aquiline features, an
aristocratic mouth, and sunken but somewhat piercing eyes. As a rule his
expression was sleepy, his whole attitude indolent; but now he was
alert, his deep-set eyes were wide open and very bright, and when his
daughter came in, he held out a somewhat trembling hand, and drew her to
his side.

"Sit down, Frances--there, in the sun, it's so chilly in the
shade--don't get into that corner behind me, my dear; I want to look at
you. What do you think? I have got a letter, and news--great news! It is
not often that news comes to the Firs in these days. What do you think,
Frances? But you will never guess. Ellen's child is coming to live with
us!