ed through the halls and rooms of that grand
addition to Mrs. Cliff's little house.

"Carpets and furniture is all that you want, madam!" said Burke, "and
then you're at home!"

When Mrs. Cliff had been upstairs and downstairs, and into every
chamber, and when she had looked out of the window and had beheld
hundreds of men at work upon the grounds and putting up fences; and when
Mr. Burke had explained to her that the people at the back of the lot
were beginning to erect a stable and carriage house,--for no dining-room
such as she had was complete, he assured her, without handsome quarters
for horses and carriages,--she left him and went downstairs by herself.

As she stood by the great front door and looked up at the wide
staircase, and into the lofty rooms upon each side, there came to her,
rising above all sentiments of amazement, delight, and pride in her new
possessions, a feeling of animated and inspiring encouragement. The
mists of doubt and uncertainty, which had hung over her, began to clear
away. This noble edifice must have cost grandly! And, for the first
time, she began to feel that she might yet be equal to her fortune.

CHAPTER XII

THE THORPEDYKE SISTERS

The new and grand addition to Mrs. Cliff's house, which had been so
planned that the little house to which it had been joined appeared to be
an architecturally harmonious adjunct to it, caused a far greater
sensation in Plainton than the erection of any of the public buildings
therein.

Its journey from the corner lot was watched by hundreds of spectators,
and now Mrs. Cliff, Willy, and Mr. Burke spent day and evening in
exhibiting and explaining this remarkable piece of building enterprise.

Mr. Burke was very jolly. He took no credit to himself for the planning
of the house, which, as he truthfully said, had been the work of an
architect who had suggested what was proper and had been allowed to do
it. But he did feel himself privileged to declare that if every crew
building a house were commanded by a person of marine experience, things
would move along a good deal more briskly than they generally did, and
to this assertion he found no one to object.

Mrs. Cliff was very happy in wandering over her new rooms, and in
assuring herself that no matter how grand they might be when they were
all furnished and fitted up, nothing had been done which would interfere
with the dear old home which she had loved so long. It is true that one
of t