s.

Miss Honora Carew and Mr. Dick and their elder sister, Mrs. Dent, had a
charmingly sedate and quiet home in the old Carew house. Mrs. Dent was
ill a great deal while we were there, but she must have been a very
brilliant woman, and was not at all dull when we knew her. She had
outlived her husband and her children, and she had, several years before
our summer there, given up her own home, which was in the city, and had
come back to Deephaven. Miss Honora--dear Miss Honora!--had been one of
the brightest, happiest girls, and had lost none of her brightness and
happiness by growing old. She had lost none of her fondness for society,
though she was so contented in quiet Deephaven, and I think she enjoyed
Kate's and my stories of our pleasures as much as we did hers of old
times. We used to go to see her almost every day. "Mr. Dick," as they
called their brother, had once been a merchant in the East Indies, and
there were quantities of curiosities and most beautiful china which he
had brought and sent home, which gave the house a character of its own.
He had been very rich and had lost some of his money, and then he came
home and was still considered to possess princely wealth by his
neighbors. He had a great fondness for reading and study, which had not
been lost sight of during his business life, and he spent most of his
time in his library. He and Mr. Lorimer had their differences of opinion
about certain points of theology, and this made them much fonder of each
other's society, and gave them a great deal of pleasure; for after every
series of arguments, each was sure that he had vanquished the other, or
there were alternate victories and defeats which made life vastly
interesting and important.

Miss Carew and Mrs. Dent had a great treasury of old brocades and laces
and ornaments, which they showed us one day, and told us stories of the
wearers, or, if they were their own, there were always some
reminiscences which they liked to talk over with each other and with us.
I never shall forget the first evening we took tea with them; it
impressed us very much, and yet nothing wonderful happened. Tea was
handed round by an old-fashioned maid, and afterward we sat talking in
the twilight, looking out at the garden. It was such a delight to have
tea served in this way. I wonder that the fashion has been almost
forgotten. Kate and I took much pleasure in choosing our tea-poys; hers
had a mandarin parading on the top, and mi