er knew. It was aware only
that Miss Caroline treated Clem with a despotic severity, issuing
commands to him as from a throne of power and in tones of acrid
authority that were the envy of all housekeepers among us who kept
"hired girls."

Even Mrs. Potts, long before the arrival of Miss Caroline, had despaired
of teaching Clem to make something of himself. He had refused to
subscribe for a "Compendium," and her cordial assurance that he was, by
the law of the land, both a man and a brother, did not even mildly elate
him. Mrs. Potts was soon in a like despair regarding Miss Caroline, whom
she regarded as too frivolous ever to make anything of herself. These
two ladies, indeed, were widely apart. Perhaps I can intimate the extent
of their unlikeness by revealing that Mrs. Potts, early in our
acquaintance, had observed of me that I was not serious enough; whereas
Miss Caroline was presently averring to my face that I was entirely too
serious. These judgments of myself seemed to contrast the ladies
informingly.

The impression that Miss Caroline was frivolous--or even worse--became
current the day after her arrival in Little Arcady. Arrayed in a
lavender silk dress of many flounces, with bonnet beribboned gayly
beyond her years, shod in low walking shoes of heel iniquitously high, a
toe minute and shining and an instep ornate to an unholy degree, bearing
a slender gold-tipped staff of polished ebony to assist theatrically in
her progress, and bestowing placid, patronizing looks to right and left,
she had flounced into Main Street, followed ceremoniously by her black
chattel, himself set up with a palpable and shameless pride in his
degradation, saluting stiffly and with an artificial grandeur those whom
he would otherwise have greeted with the unstudied ease of long
association.

This procession regaled both Main and Washington streets, where Miss
Caroline visited our shops to make inconsiderable purchases and many
friends. It was a function the pleasant data whereof I was not long in
collecting.

Her first conquest was Chester Pierce, our excellent hardware merchant,
whom she commissioned to make a needed repair to her range. It was a
simple business matter, and Chester Pierce is a simple business person
of plain manners. But as he slouched comfortably upon his counter and
listened to Miss Caroline's condescending exposition of her needs, he
became sensible of a strange influence stealing upon him. By degrees he
bro