e concluded triumphantly. While Mr. Gerry looked
wistful for a moment, and Miss Prince quickly took advantage of a
pause in the conversation to ask if he knew whether anything pleasant
was going forward among the young people this week. She did not wish
her niece to have too dull a visit.

"Some of us are going up the river very soon," said the young man,
with eager pleasure, looking at Nan. "It would be so pleasant if Miss
Prince would join us. We think our Dunport supper parties of that sort
would be hard to match."

"The young folks will all be flocking here by to-morrow," said the
captain; and Miss Prince answered "Surely," in a tone of command,
rather than entreaty. She knew very well how the news of Nan's coming
must be flying about the town, and she almost regretted the fact of
her own previous silence about this great event. In the mean time Nan
was talking to the two gentlemen as if she had already been to her
room to smooth her hair, which her aunt looked at reproachfully from
time to time, though the sunshine had not wholly left it. The girl was
quite unconscious of herself, and glad to have the company and
sympathy of these kind friends. She thought once that if she had a
brother she would like him to be of young Mr. Gerry's fashion. He had
none of the manner which constantly insisted upon her remembering that
he was a man and she a girl; she could be good friends with him in the
same way that she had been with some Oldfields schoolfellows, and
after the captain had reluctantly taken his leave, they had a pleasant
talk about out-of-door life and their rides and walks, and were soon
exchanging experiences in a way that Miss Nancy smiled upon gladly. It
was not to be wondered at that she could not get used to so great a
change in her life. She could not feel sure yet that she no longer had
a secret, and that this was the niece whom she had so many years
dreaded and disclaimed. George Gerry had taken the niece's place in
her affections, yet here was Anna, her own namesake, who showed
plainly in so many ways the same descent as herself, being as much a
Prince as herself in spite of her mother's low origin and worse
personal traits, and the loutish companions to whom she had always
persuaded herself poor Nan was akin. And it was by no means sure that
the last of the Princes was not the best of them; she was very proud
of her brother's daughter, and was more at a loss to know how to make
excuses for being shorts