ir chairs--and the old mantel that had come from England, Webb
had said, was in the "sittin'-room."

She tip-toed through the hall and opened the door on the right.
Accustomed now to the prevailing dimness, her eyes swept immediately to
the old fireplace. The marble mantel stood out in all its purity
against the dark wall; age had given a mellow lustre to its glossy
surface. Nancy, remembering Webb's story about that Anne Leavitt who,
ages ago had placed it there, went to it and touched it reverently.
"H-a-p-p-y H-o-u-s-e," she spelled softly, her finger tracing the
letters graven into the marble. Doubtless it had come across the sea
on one of those slow-sailing ships of long ago--that other Anne Leavitt
had waited impatiently months and months for it!

Had that Anne Leavitt, like poor old Aunt Sabrina, worried and fussed
over Leavitt traditions? Of course not--she had _made_ them.

A curiosity seized Nancy to find B'lindy. Webb had said she knew
everything. She must be somewhere beyond that last closed door in the
long hallway--the omelette had come from that direction.

Under Nancy's pressure the door opened into a pantry and beyond, in a
big, sunny kitchen, shiny in its spotlessness, stood B'lindy before a
table, putting the last touches to a pie. She turned at the sound of
Nancy's step. Nancy paused in the doorway.

"May I come in?" she asked. "Are you B'lindy?" She imitated Webb's
abbreviation.

"Yes," the woman at the table answered shortly. "And you're the
niece." She gave Nancy a long, steady look. "Ain't a bit like a
Leavitt's I can see! Miss Sabriny would have you come, I hope you'll
like it."

"The hateful creature," thought Nancy. Why couldn't _some one_ in
Happy House act natural and kind and jolly?

Like Miss Sabrina, B'lindy was tall and almost as old; her forbidding
manner came not from a Roman nose but from heavy brows that frowned
down over deep-set eyes--eyes that pierced in their keenness. Like
Miss Sabrina she had a certain dignity, too, which seemed to set her
apart from her fellow creatures--the result, no doubt, as Nancy
thought, of having been born in the Leavitt household.

"Of course I'm going to love it. It's so--so quiet! And that omelette
you made me was delicious. I was dreadfully hungry. And oh, there is
so much I want to know about Happy House. Webb told me--coming
here--that you knew everything. I've just gone in and looked at the
old fireplace. Tell me