s in the town--no one with whom we could stop
to dinner--I and my brother set out to walk home again. He is an
invalid, and is quite exhausted with fasting and fatigue. So perhaps,
under the circumstances, you would not mind letting us have a parlor to
rest in and a little dinner."

"Of course not, ma'am; for under such circumstances it is clearly my
duty to entertain you," answered the good soul, who, under no possible
circumstances, would have been false to her ideas of right.

"You are very kind. I thank you very much," said Mary Grey, sweetly.

"Here is a room at your and your brother's disposal, ma'am. No one will
intrude upon you here," said the hostess, opening a door that led into a
neat back parlor, whose windows overlooked the garden and orchard
attached to the house.

"Come," said Mary Grey, beckoning to her companion.

"Dear me! I never saw a brother and sister look so much alike as you two
do," remarked the hostess, admiringly, as she showed them into the back
parlor.

She left them, promising to send in a nice dinner.

"And coffee with it, if you please," added Mary Grey, as the landlady
went out.

"Yes, certainly, ma'am, if you wish it," she answered, as she
disappeared.

Mary Grey went to the back window and looked out upon the pleasant
garden, verdant and blooming with shrubs, rose-bushes and flowers.

Craven Kyte joined her.

"Did you hear that old lady call us brother and sister?" inquired the
young man.

"Yes," answered Mary Grey, with her false smile. "But I did not think it
necessary to set her right."

"And she said we looked so much alike," smiled Craven.

"We both have dark hair and dark eyes. And we are both rather thin in
flesh. That is the beginning and the ending of the likeness. And her
imagination did the rest," explained Mary Grey.

They were interrupted by a pretty mulatto girl, who came in to lay the
cloth for dinner.

And this girl continued to flit in and out of the room, bringing the
various articles of the service, until, on one of her temporary
absences, Craven Kyte exclaimed:

"I would rather have sat and fasted with you under that pretty porch of
the old road-side empty house than sit at a feast here, with that girl
always running in and out to interrupt us."

"Never mind, dear. As soon as we get something to eat we will go," said
Mary Grey, with her sweet, false smile.

In a reasonable time a dainty little dinner was placed upon the table,
consisting of