rusted to
the last, not to outrage those friends who quoted her as an exemplar of
propriety. She died very unobtrusively of an affection of the heart, one
June morning, while trimming her rose trellis, and her lavender-colored
print was not even rumpled when she fell, nor were more than the tips of
her little bronze slippers visible.

"Isn't it dreadful," said the Philadelphians, "that the property should
go to a very, very distant cousin in Iowa or somewhere else on the
frontier, about whom nobody knows anything at all?"

The Carew treasures were packed in boxes and sent away into the Iowa
wilderness; the Carew traditions were preserved by the Historical
Society; the Carew property, standing in one of the most umbrageous
and aristocratic suburbs of Philadelphia, was rented to all manner
of folk--anybody who had money enough to pay the rental--and society
entered its doors no more.

But at last, after twenty years, and when all save the oldest
Philadelphians had forgotten Miss Lydia Carew, the very, very distant
cousin appeared. He was quite in the prime of life, and so agreeable and
unassuming that nothing could be urged against him save his patronymic,
which, being Boggs, did not commend itself to the euphemists. With him
were two maiden sisters, ladies of excellent taste and manners, who
restored the Carew china to its ancient cabinets, and replaced the Carew
pictures upon the walls, with additions not out of keeping with
the elegance of these heirlooms. Society, with a magnanimity almost
dramatic, overlooked the name of Boggs--and called.

All was well. At least, to an outsider all seemed to be well. But,
in truth, there was a certain distress in the old mansion, and in
the hearts of the well-behaved Misses Boggs. It came about most
unexpectedly. The sisters had been sitting upstairs, looking out at the
beautiful grounds of the old place, and marvelling at the violets,
which lifted their heads from every possible cranny about the house, and
talking over the cordiality which they had been receiving by those upon
whom they had no claim, and they were filled with amiable satisfaction.
Life looked attractive. They had often been grateful to Miss Lydia Carew
for leaving their brother her fortune. Now they felt even more grateful
to her. She had left them a Social Position--one, which even after
twenty years of desuetude, was fit for use.

They descended the stairs together, with arms clasped about each other's
wais