The first six months of her sojourn had been almost entirely occupied
with accustoming herself to the absence of an attic and a cellar; long
days of depression they learned, finally, to trace to this incredible
source. Later she dealt with the problem of subsisting from eight till
one on two rolls and a cup of coffee; successfully, in the ultimate
issue, as surreptitious bits of fried ham and buckwheat cakes, with
suspicious odors, winked at discreetly by her nieces, witnessed. It
would have been unkind, as Elise suggested, to criticise Aunt Ju-ju's
performances at the ungodly hour of seven in the morning, when their own
correctly Continental repast, flanked by a chrysanthemum in a tall
vase, not only tallied so accurately with their digestive and aesthetic
necessities, but appeared, moreover, with such gratifying regularity one
hour later.

Both Carolyn and her sister had inherited from their mother, Miss
True-man's older sister, a real gift for teaching, and this, rather than
their respective abilities in art and music, enabled them to impart
very successfully the elements of these necessary branches to the young
ladies of a fashionable boarding-school just outside the city.

It was politely regretted by their friends that they were unable to
give themselves unreservedly to the exercise of their art without the
cramping necessity for teaching; but it is probable that both the girls
estimated their not too extraordinary talents very sensibly, though far
from displeased by a more flattering judgment.

Miss Trueman, who possessed the characteristic veneration of the bred
and born New Englander for his native or imported school-ma'am, resented
persistently their somewhat patronizing attitude toward the profession
second only to the ministry in her stanch respect. A little of the
simple grandeur of those childhood days when "the teacher boarded with
them" clung with the ineradicable force of habit to her mind, and she
could not understand their restive attitude at "the fine positions as
teachers Hattie's girls have got."

"I'm sure you make more money than that Miss Seymour that gets her own
meals in her room--she said so herself."

"Oh, well, there are other things to be considered, Aunt Ju; and,
anyway, she's a real bohemian, Polly Seymour. There's a fascination in
it."

"There's no fascination in being hungry that I can see, and she admitted
that, L--Elise," Miss Trueman insisted severely. "I don't understand