here that
I have no doubt you will do very well for one night. I shall drive
myself, and take Plez along with me, and leave Uncle Isham and Letty
to take care of you."

Under ordinary circumstances Annie would have been delighted to go to
Midbranch, a place she had never seen, and of which she had heard so
much, but she had no present desire to see Roberta March, and said so;
further remarking that she was very willing to stay by herself for
a night. She hoped much that her aunt would proceed with the
conversation, and tell her why she had determined upon such an
extraordinary thing as a visit to Midbranch; where she knew the old
lady had not been for many, many years. But Mrs Keswick had nothing
further to say upon this subject, and began to talk of other matters.

After a very early breakfast next morning, Mrs Keswick set out
upon her journey, driving the sorrel horse with much steadiness,
intermingled with severity whenever he allowed himself to drop out of
his usual jogging pace. Plez sat in the back part of the spring-wagon,
and whenever the old lady saw an unusually large stone lying in the
track of the road, she would stop, and make him get out and throw it
to one side.

"I believe," she said, on one of these occasions, "that a thousand men
in buggies might pass along this road thrice a day for a year, and
never think of stopping to throw that rock out of the way of people's
wheels. They would steer around it every time, or bump over it, but
such a thing as moving it would never enter their heads."

The morning was somewhat cool, but fine, and the smile which
occasionally flitted over the corrugated countenance of Mrs Keswick
seemed to indicate that she was in a pleasant state of mind, which
might have been occasioned by the fine weather and the good condition
of the roads, or by cheerful anticipations connected with her visit.

It was not very long after noonday that, with a stifled remark of
disapprobation upon her lips, she drew up at the foot of the broad
flight of steps by which one crossed the fence into the Midbranch
yard. Giving Billy into the charge of Plez, with directions to take
him round to the stables and tell somebody to put him up and feed him,
she mounted the steps, and stopped for a minute or so on the broad
platform at the top; looking about her as she stood. Everything, the
house, the yard, the row of elms along the fence, the wide-spreading
fields, and the farm buildings and cabins, som