that caused a smile was not wholly bad. Miss Sarah Leigh
pretended to admire it, and declared she wanted to meet the architect.
Of all things she liked originality. Mrs. Millard heard her
disdainfully. Any departure from tradition was objectionable in her
eyes, and she was deficient in a sense of humor. Judge Russell
complained that now St. Mark's had taken to high-church customs, and
the Terrace was degenerating, it was time for him to be put away in
Spring Hill Cemetery.

Pretty Madelaine, his granddaughter, looked longingly toward Dean
Avenue, being divided between a desire for its new splendors and a
complacent consciousness that it was something of a distinction in
these days to live in the house where your father was born. Alexina,
her sister, treated this with scorn. She loved the shabby old house
for other reasons.

In spite of the original intentions of the builder, fate decreed that
this much-talked-of place was not to be a drug store after all, and
early in the summer, before it was finished, it was advertised for
rent.

The plastering stage was beginning when the agent in charge one day
appeared conducting a young woman over the premises. If the agent's
manner revealed some slight curiosity concerning her, it was not to be
wondered at, for it was more than probable he had never before seen so
charming a person in the guise of a possible shopkeeper.

Her bearing was dignified and businesslike, and if a smile hovered
about her lips as they explored the odd little house, it did not go
beyond the bounds of a polite interest. At length she seated herself
on an empty nail keg in the shop, and became absorbed in thought. The
agent leaned against the door frame and waited.

"I shall want a few changes made if I lease it," she announced
suddenly, after some minutes of silence.

The agent started as her eyes met his. "Oh, certainly," he replied, as
if ready to agree without hearing what they were. On second thought he
added that the architect was at that moment coming up the street, and
the best plan, perhaps, would be to submit her wishes to him.

To this she graciously assented, and he left her. When he was gone,
the young woman's dignity relaxed. She smiled broadly; she even
laughed. "How ever did it happen!" she exclaimed.

She produced a tape-line and made measurements, then she stood with
the tip of her tongue touching her upper lip. "I do wish Marion could
see it," she said. "She will never believe wh