great staircase mahogany; there are pilasters with
delicate Corinthian capitals; there are cherubs' heads and wings that go
astray and lose themselves in closets and behind glass doors; there are
curling acanthus-leaves that cluster over shelves and ledges, and there
are those graceful shell-patterns which one often sees on old furniture,
but rarely in houses. The high front door still retains its Ionic
cornice; and the western entrance, looking on the bay, is surmounted
by carved fruit and flowers, and is crowned, as is the roof, with
that pineapple in whose symbolic wealth the rich merchants of the last
century delighted.

Like most of the statelier houses in that region of Oldport, this abode
had its rumors of a ghost and of secret chambers. The ghost had
never been properly lionized nor laid, for Aunt Jane, the neatest
of housekeepers, had discouraged all silly explorations, had at once
required all barred windows to be opened, all superfluous partitions to
be taken down, and several highly eligible dark-closets to be nailed up.
If there was anything she hated, it was nooks and odd corners. Yet there
had been times that year, when the household would have been glad to
find a few more such hiding-places; for during the first few weeks the
house had been crammed with guests so closely that the very mice had
been ill-accommodated and obliged to sit up all night, which had caused
them much discomfort and many audible disagreements.

But this first tumult had passed away; and now there remained only the
various nephews and nieces of the house, including a due proportion of
small children. Two final guests were to arrive that day, bringing
the latest breath of Europe on their wings,--Philip Malbone, Hope's
betrothed; and little Emilia, Hope's half-sister.

None of the family had seen Emilia since her wandering mother had taken
her abroad, a fascinating spoiled child of four, and they were all eager
to see in how many ways the succeeding twelve years had completed or
corrected the spoiling. As for Philip, he had been spoiled, as Aunt Jane
declared, from the day of his birth, by the joint effort of all friends
and neighbors. Everybody had conspired to carry on the process except
Aunt Jane herself, who directed toward him one of her honest, steady,
immovable dislikes, which may be said to have dated back to the time
when his father and mother were married, some years before he personally
entered on the scene.

The New Y