ought the silver; and the
first business was to dispose of it. Mrs. Dillingham led the mistress of
the house to her seat, distributed the children, and amused them all by
the accounts she gave them of her efforts to make their entrance and
welcome satisfactory. Mrs. Belcher observed her quietly, acknowledged to
herself the woman's personal charms--her beauty, her wit, her humor, her
sprightliness, and her more than neighborly service; but her quick,
womanly instincts detected something which she did not like. She saw
that Mr. Belcher was fascinated by her, and that he felt that she had
rendered him and the family a service for which great gratitude was due;
but she saw that the object of his admiration was selfish--that she
loved power, delighted in having things her own way, and, more than all,
was determined to place the mistress of the house under obligations to
her. It would have been far more agreeable to Mrs. Belcher to find
everything in confusion, than to have her house brought into habitable
order by a stranger in whom she had no trust, and upon whom she had no
claim. Mr. Belcher had bought the house without her knowledge; Mrs.
Dillingham had arranged it without her supervision. She seemed to
herself to be simply a child, over whose life others had assumed the
offices of administration.

Mrs. Belcher was weary, and she would have been delighted to be alone
with her family, but here was an intruder whom she could not dispose of.
She would have been glad to go over the house alone, and to have had the
privilege of discovery, but she must go with one who was bent on showing
her everything, and giving her reasons for all that had been done.

Mrs. Dillingham was determined to play her cards well with Mrs. Belcher.
She was sympathetic, confidential, most respectful; but she found that
lady very quiet. Mr. Belcher followed them from room to room, with wider
eyes for Mrs. Dillingham than for the details of his new home. Now he
could see them together--the mother of his children, and the woman who
had already won his heart away from her. The shapely lady, with her
queenly ways, her vivacity, her graceful adaptiveness to persons and
circumstances, was sharply contrasted with the matronly figure, homely
manners, and unresponsive mind of his wife. He pitied his wife, he
pitied himself, he pitied his children, he almost pitied the dumb walls
and the beautiful furniture around him.

Was Mrs. Dillingham conscious of the tho