vividly interested at once. "Oh, Grace!
Kate has come!"

"Yes."

The young lady laid down the letter and looked at her.

"How oddly you said that! Are you sorry?"

"Sorry! Oh, no."

"You looked as if you were. How strange it seems to think that this
sister of mine, of whom I have heard so much and have never seen, should
be coming here for good! And papa--he is almost a stranger, too, Grace.
I suppose everything will be very different now."

"Very, very different," Grace said, with her quiet eyes fixed on the
fire. "The old life will soon be a thing of the past. And we have been
very happy here; have we not, Eeny?"

"Very happy," answered Eeny; "and will be still, I hope. Papa and Kate,
and Mr. Richards--I wonder who Mr. Richards is?--shall not make us
miserable."

"I suppose, Eeny," said Grace, "I shall be quite forgotten when this
handsome Sister Kate comes. She ought to be very handsome."

She looked up at an oval picture about the marble mantel, in a rich
frame--the photograph of a lovely girl about Eeny's age. The bright
young face looked at you with a radiant smile, the exuberant golden hair
fell in sunlight ripples over the plump white shoulders, and the blue
eyes and rosebud lips smiled on you together. A lovely face, full of the
serene promise of yet greater loveliness to come. Eeny's eyes followed
those of Grace.

"You know better than that, Cousin Grace. Miss Kate Danton may be an
angel incarnate, but she can never drive you quite out of my heart.
Grace, how old is Kate?"

"Twenty years old."

"And Harry was three years older?"

"Yes."

"Grace, I wonder who Mr. Richards is?"

"So do I."

"Did Ogden say nothing about him?"

"Not a word."

"Will you write to Rose?"

"I shall not have time. I wish you would write, Eeny. That is what I
came here to ask you to do."

"Certainly, with pleasure," said Eeny. "Rose will wait for no second
invitation when she hears who have come. Will they arrive this evening?"

"Probably. They may come at any moment. And here I am lingering. Write
the note at once, Eeny, and send Sam back to the village with it."

She left the parlour and went down stairs, looking into the dining-room
as she passed. Babette was setting the table already, and silver and
cut-glass sparkled in the light of the ruby flame. Grace went on, up
another staircase, hurrying from room to room, seeing that all things
were in perfect order. Fires burned in each apartment, lamps stood