are very much disappointed here, and are glad we did not positively
engage our rooms until we had seen them. It is a very damp house, and
I am sure my aunt ought not to stay, and would be uncomfortable in
many ways. We should like two rooms close to each other, and we were
each to pay ten dollars a week here, but are perfectly willing to pay
more than that. We are almost certain that we shall like your house;
but perhaps it will be the better way for me to come down and see you,
and then I can make all the arrangements. If Brookton suits my aunt,
we may wish to stay as late as October; and should you mind if one of
my friends comes to stay with us by and by? She would share my room.
If you will write me to-morrow morning, and if you think you can take
us, I will go down in the early afternoon train.

"We hope you reached home all right, and that your friends were not
much worried. We begin to think that your adventure was a fortunate
thing for us. With kind regards from us both,

"Yours sincerely,

"Alice West."

Did you ever know any thing more fortunate than this? Poor Miss
Catherine sat down and cried about it; and the cat came and rubbed
against her foot, and purred sympathizingly, and was taken up and wept
over, which I believe had never happened to her before. Of all people,
who could be pleasanter boarders than these? They had won her heart in
the half-hour she had already spent with them. She had wished then
that they were coming to her: it would be such a pleasure to make them
comfortable. And twenty dollars a week,--that would surely be more
than enough for them all to live upon with what she had beside. And
there was Katy, who could save so many steps, and could wait on Miss
Ashton; she would have the child come at once. She could have
Mrs. Brown come every day for a while, beside Mondays and Tuesdays;
and how glad she would be of the extra pay! Miss Catherine even went
up stairs in the late June twilight, to look at the two familiar
front-chambers, with only the small square hall separating them. They
looked so pleasant, and were so airy and of such good size, they could
not help being suited. She patted the pillow of her best bed
affectionately, and thought with pride that they would find no fault
with her way of cooking, and her house never was damp; there was not a
better house in Brookton. Life had rarely looked brighter to Miss
Catherine than it did that night.

Alice West came down the n