g together, indefinitely. He chatted in his easy way,
glanced at the paper, reading bits of it to her, commenting on the
situation here and across the border. Fortunately, her mind had seemed
to quicken with her sensibility, so that she grasped, or partly
grasped, ideas that might well have meant nothing to her.

He proposed to take her out to see the town after he had spent an hour
in his study. Though it would again postpone her explanation, Elsie
decided she might as well go a step further and get a better idea of
the place for which Elsie Moss was to exchange New York and her
ambition. The day promised heat; the girl was so tired of her
travelling-suit that she was tempted to open her trunk and get out a
linen frock and her Panama hat, but she wouldn't allow herself to yield.

They were out nearly two hours, strolling leisurely through the quiet
old streets. The church and parish-house and a large hall were across
the common, the library and museum nearer the centre of the town--all
dignified, rather stately, very attractive buildings in harmonizing
styles of architecture, whose low and rambling character, with the ivy
that well-nigh covered them, and the wonderful green of their lawns,
gave them an air of age, particularly appealing to one whose home had
been in the West. Handsome houses and charming cottages bespoke their
attention as they walked through the wide avenue with double rows of
elms on either side, and grass-plots separating the walks from the
highway. Just to wander under that leafy arch of a June morning, with
glimpses of blue sky and white cloud, was a sensation that made the
thought of New York appalling. Cousin Julia had, indeed, spoken once
of going to the shore; but who wanted to go to the shore! For herself,
nothing seemed so attractive as tall old trees, abundance of green
turf, New England, and--_Enderby_!

And all the while she became more aware of the unconscious appeal on
the part of Mr. Middleton. As they went on, more and more the girl
felt how eagerly he had looked forward to the coming of his niece, how
he had anticipated her companionship. And she understood dimly that
his eagerness to show her the finer points of everything was not only
the desire to make her share his enthusiasm, but a desire to begin at
once--to start out friends and companions.

She returned only the more oppressed by the sense of remissness--of
remorse. Kate met her at the door of the chamber she h