ent.

"Good gracious!" she exclaimed. "Seven! I guess you had to pay for extra
baggage. Shall I get you a carriage, and where do you want to be driven
to--to your own house or the hotel?"

Now Mrs. Cliff could not restrain herself. "What is the matter with you,
Willy? Have you gone crazy?" she exclaimed. "Of course I am going to my
own house, and I do not want any carriage. Did I ever need a carriage to
take me such a short distance as that? Tell the man to bring some one
with him to carry the trunks upstairs, and then come on."

"Let me carry your bag," said Willy, as the two walked away from the
station at a much greater pace, it may be remarked, than Willy was
accustomed to walk.

"No, you shall not carry my bag," said Mrs. Cliff, and not another word
did she speak until she had entered the hallway of her home. Then,
closing the door behind her, and without looking around at any of the
dear objects for a sight of which she had so long been yearning, she
turned to her companion.

"Willy," she cried, "what does this mean? Why do you treat me in this
way when I come home after having been away so long, and having suffered
so much? Why do you greet me as if you took me for a tax collector? Why
do you stand there like a--a horrible clam?"

Willy hesitated. She looked up and she looked down.

"Things are so altered," she said, "and I didn't know--"

"Well, know now," said Mrs. Cliff, as she held out her arms. In a moment
the two women were clasped in a tight embrace, kissing and sobbing.

"How should I know?" said poor Willy, as she was wiping her eyes.
"Chills went down me as I stood on that platform, wondering what sort of
a grand lady you would look like when you got out of the car, with two
servant women, most likely, and perhaps a butler, and trying to think
what I should say."

Mrs. Cliff laughed. "You were born addle-pated, and you can't help it.
Now, let us go through this house without wasting a minute!" Willy gazed
at her in amazement.

"You're just the same as you always was!" she cried "Indeed I am!" said
Mrs. Cliff. "Did you clean this dining-room yourself, Willy? It looks as
spick and span as if I had just left it."

"Indeed it does," was the proud reply, "and you couldn't find a speck of
dust from the ceiling to the floor!"

When Mrs. Cliff had been upstairs and downstairs, and in the front yard,
the side yard, and the back yard, and when her happy eyes had rested
upon all her dear possession