alas!
the so-called "library" was a large-sized closet, or single room, at the
other end of the hall, and now used as an _omnium gatherum_ for the
various articles Mrs. Tubbs found necessary for her "back parlor," or
dining-room, where the table was set cornerwise, its soiled linen and
dingy napkins presenting a striking contrast to the snowy cloth which
always covered the table at the farmhouse, while the dry, baker's bread,
and the frowsy butter were almost more than Aunt Betsy could swallow,
hungry as she was.

But all this was half an hour after the time when Mrs. Tubbs came in to
meet her, expressing genuine pleasure at seeing her there, and feeling
what she said; for Mrs. Tubbs did not take kindly to city life, and the
sight of a familiar face, which brought the country with it, was very
welcome to her. Mattie, on the contrary, liked New York, and there was
scarcely a street where she had not been, with Tom for a protector;
while she was perfectly conversant with all the respectable places of
amusement--with their different prices and different grades of patrons.
She knew where Wilford Cameron's office was, and also his house, for she
had walked by the latter many times, admiring the elegant curtains and
feasting her eyes upon the glimpses of inside grandeur, which she
occasionally obtained as some one came out or went in. Once she had seen
Helen and Katy enter their carriage, which the colored coachman drove
away, but she had never ventured to accost them. Katy would not have
known her if she had, for the family had come to Silverton while she was
at Canandaigua, and as, after her return to Silverton, until her
marriage, Mattie had been in one of the Lawrence factories, they had
never met. With Helen, however, she had a speaking acquaintance; but she
had never presumed upon it in New York, though to some of her young
friends she had told how she once sat in the same pew with Mrs. Wilford
Cameron's sister when she went to the "Episcopal meeting," and the
consideration which this fact procured for her from those who had heard
of Mrs. Wilford Cameron, of Madison Square, awoke in her the ambition to
know more of that lady, and, if possible, gain an entrance to her
dwelling. To this end she favored Aunt Betsy's visit, hoping thus to
accomplish her object, for, of course, when Miss Barlow went to Mrs.
Cameron's, she was the proper person to go with her and point the way.
This was the secret of Mattie's letter to Aunt