be contented, and does not
realize her troubles; though she lives mostly in the past, and has
little idea of the present, except in her house affairs, which seem
pitiful to me, for I remember the housekeeping of the Chaunceys when I
was a child. I have always been to see her, and she usually knows me,
though I have been but seldom of late years. She is several years older
than I. The town makes her an allowance every year, and she has some
friends who take care that she does not suffer, though her wants are
few. She is an elegant woman still, and some day, if you like, I will
give you something to carry to her, and a message, if I can think of
one, and you must go to make her a call. I hope she will happen to be
talkative, for I am sure you would enjoy her. For many years she did not
like to see strangers, but some one has told me lately that she seems to
be pleased if people go to see her."

You may be sure it was not many days before Kate and I claimed the
basket and the message, and went again to East Parish. We boldly lifted
the great brass knocker, and were dismayed because nobody answered.
While we waited, a girl came up the walk and said that Miss Sally lived
up stairs, and she would speak to her if we liked. "Sometimes she don't
have sense enough to know what the knocker means," we were told. There
was evidently no romance about Miss Sally to our new acquaintance.

"Do you think," said I, "that we might go in and look around the lower
rooms? Perhaps she will refuse to see us."

"Yes, indeed," said the girl; "only run the minute I speak; you'll have
time enough, for she walks slow and is a little deaf."

So we went into the great hall with its wide staircase and handsome
cornices and panelling, and then into the large parlor on the right, and
through it to a smaller room looking out on the garden, which sloped
down to the river. Both rooms had fine carved mantels, with Dutch-tiled
fireplaces, and in the cornices we saw the fastenings where pictures had
hung,--old portraits, perhaps. And what had become of them? The girl did
not know: the house had been the same ever since she could remember,
only it would all fall through into the cellar soon. But the old lady
was proud as Lucifer, and wouldn't hear of moving out.

The floor in the room toward the river was so broken that it was not
safe, and we came back through the hall and opened the door at the foot
of the stairs. "Guess you won't want to stop long there