sorrow would have atoned, in my eyes, at all events,
for any amount of shortcomings during the rest of the time.'

"'I agree with you, Severin,' said Marzell. 'The old lady can't have
been quite so bad as Alexander--though only from hearsay--makes her out
to have been; at the same time I must confess I don't like to have
anything to do with folks who have had their lives embittered, and it's
better that Alexander should edify himself with the story of the old
lady's way of keeping her wedding-day (that ought to have been), and
rummage in the well-filled boxes and chests she has left him, or gloat
over the valuable "inventory," than that he should see the deserted
bride, dressed for the altar, walking up and down beside her
chocolate-table.'

"Alexander set the coffee-cup which he was raising to his lips down
untasted on the table with a clatter; beat his hands together, and
cried, 'For Heaven's sake don't put ideas of that sort into my head!
Really I feel in that state that it wouldn't astonish me if I were to
see my old aunt in her bride-clothes suddenly peering, in a horrible,
spectral manner, out of the middle of that group of nice-looking girls
there, in the bright sunshine!'

"'That serves you right for having said what you did about your aunt,
who never did you anything but kindness, even in death,' said Severin,
with a quiet laugh, puffing away little blue cloudlets from his pipe,
which he had resumed.

"Do you know, my dear fellows,' said Alexander, 'that the very
atmosphere of that old house of mine seems to be so thoroughly
impregnated with the essence and spirit of the old lady, that one has
only to be in it for a day or two to find one's self imbibing it to a
very appreciable extent?'

"Marzell and Severin chanced to be handing their empty cups to
Alexander as he spoke; he put in the sugar and milk, and poured out the
coffee with a dainty, deliberate care, and said:

"'I daresay you notice how differently I do a thing of this sort from
my old way of doing it; I mean, I do it much more like an old lady; and
you will be more astonished still when I tell you that I find myself
taking a strange pleasure in well-polished pewter and copper, and in
linen and silver plate--in everything relating to a well-ordered
household. In one word, I feel like some old housekeeper. I find myself
looking with a funny satisfaction at household paraphernalia of every
sort, and it has suddenly dawned upon me that it is good