o had always been a privileged guest
in the household. Kate's clear, penetrating, buoyant nature had divined
Phil's weaknesses, and had sometimes laughed at them, even from her
childhood; though she did not dislike him, for she did not dislike
anybody. But Harry was magnetized by him very much as women were;
believed him true, because he was tender, and called him only fastidious
where Kate called him lazy.

Kate was spending that summer with her aunt Jane, whose especial pet and
pride she was. Hope was spending there the summer vacation of a Normal
School in which she had just become a teacher. Her father had shared in
the family ups and downs, but had finally stayed down, while the rest
had remained up. Fortunately, his elder children were indifferent to
this, and indeed rather preferred it; it was a tradition that Hope
had expressed the wish, when a child, that her father might lose
his property, so that she could become a teacher. As for Harry, he
infinitely preferred the drudgery of a law office to that of a gentleman
of leisure; and as for their step-mother, it turned out, when she was
left a widow, that she had secured for herself and Emilia whatever
property remained, so that she suffered only the delightful need of
living in Europe for economy.

The elder brother and sister had alike that fine physical vigor which
New England is now developing, just in time to save it from decay. Hope
was of Saxon type, though a shade less blonde than her brother; she
was a little taller, and of more commanding presence, with a peculiarly
noble carriage of the shoulders. Her brow was sometimes criticised as
being a little too full for a woman; but her nose was straight,
her mouth and teeth beautiful, and her profile almost perfect. Her
complexion had lost by out-door life something of its delicacy, but had
gained a freshness and firmness that no sunlight could impair. She had
that wealth of hair which young girls find the most enviable point of
beauty in each other. Hers reached below her knees, when loosened, or
else lay coiled, in munificent braids of gold, full of sparkling lights
and contrasted shadows, upon her queenly head.

Her eyes were much darker than her hair, and had a way of opening
naively and suddenly, with a perfectly infantine expression, as if she
at that moment saw the sunlight for the first time. Her long lashes were
somewhat like Emilia's, and she had the same deeply curved eyebrows;
in no other point wa