Chilian looked approval, and followed up the
stairway, where her feet sank in the carpet. There were several rooms,
with the air blowing through delightfully, and there was fragrance
everywhere from vases of flowers.

Mrs. Stevens took off her hat and inspected her. She was going to be a
big heiress and a pretty girl in the bargain, piquant with a slightly
foreign look, though perhaps it was more in her manner.

"Susan," she called to a girl sewing in the next room, "come and wash
this little visitor's hands and face. She has come all the way from
Salem this morning. I wish we had a fresh frock for you, but we have no
little girls."

The voice was so soft and charming that Cynthia looked up with a kind of
admiring smile.

Susan took off her frock, bathed her face and hands with some perfumed
water, brushed out her hair, and said, "What lovely hair you have, and
so much of it. A queen might envy you!"

The idea of a queen wanting anything she had! Oh, how nice and refreshed
she felt.

Susan shook out the frock and put it on again, pulled out the sleeves,
smoothed the wrinkled skirt, and took her in the next room.

"It rests one so much. Are you hungry? We shall have dinner in half an
hour."

"Oh, no," Cynthia said. "And--and I am very much obliged to Susan."

"Come and sit here. Tell me how the aunties are--the one with the broken
limb."

"I think she isn't so well. Yesterday she was so much improved. The
doctor was there this morning."

"Poor lady! She has been ill a long while. And you are quite at home in
Salem, I suppose? You had a long journey. Did you like India?"

"Father was there;" with a sweet, attractive simplicity. "And some of it
was very beautiful. Oh, I almost froze the first winter here, but last
winter I didn't mind. And the sleigh-riding was splendid."

"Are there many little girls to be friends with?"

"Oh, I go to a nice school. And we have so many funny plays and dancing
once a week. I didn't tease about it, though I wanted to go, and Cousin
Chilian said I might. It's queer, but in India they come and dance for
you, and you pay them. But it is lovely to do it for yourself;" and she
made some graceful motions with her hands, while her beautiful eyes were
alight with emotion, as if she heard the music.

"Did you ever want to go back?"

"At first. But when I heard that father had gone away, he had meant to
come to Salem, but----" she made a pause, "mother was there in India.
Only t