who had so beguiled and ruined poor Jack; she was a little lady, who
did honor to the good name of the Princes and Lesters,--a niece whom
anybody might be proud to claim, and whom Miss Prince could cordially
entreat to make herself quite at home, for she had only been too long
in coming to her own. And presently, when tea was served, the careful
ordering of it, which had been meant partly to mock and astonish the
girl who could not have been used to such ways of living, seemed only
a fitting entertainment for so distinguished a guest. "Blood will
tell," murmured Miss Prince to herself as she clinked the teacups and
looked at the welcome face the other side of the table. But when they
talked together in the evening, it was made certain that Nan was
neither ashamed of her mother's people nor afraid to say gravely to
Miss Prince that she did not know how much injustice was done to
grandmother Thacher, if she believed she were right in making a
certain statement. Aunt Nancy smiled, and accepted her rebuff without
any show of disapproval, and was glad that the next day was Sunday,
so that she could take Nan to church for the admiration of all
observers. She was even sorry that she had not told young Gerry to
come and pay an evening visit to her niece, and spoke of him once or
twice. Her niece observed a slight self-consciousness at such times,
and wondered a little who Mr. George Gerry might be.

Nan thought of many things before she fell asleep that night. Her
ideas of her father had always been vague, and she had somehow
associated him with Dr. Leslie, who had shown her all the fatherliness
she had ever known. As for the young man who had died so long ago, if
she had said that he seemed to her like a younger brother of Dr.
Leslie, it would have been nearest the truth, in spite of the details
of the short and disappointed life which had come to her ears. Dr.
Ferris had told her almost all she knew of him, but now that she was
in her own father's old home, among the very same sights he had known
best, he suddenly appeared to her in a vision, as one might say, and
invested himself in a cloud of attractive romance. His daughter felt a
sudden blaze of delight at this first real consciousness of her
kinship. Miss Prince had shown her brother's portrait early in the
evening, and had even taken the trouble to light a candle and hold it
high, so that Nan could see the handsome, boyish face, in which she
recognized quickly the like