ery morning with Mr. Jasper,
acquiring a knowledge of his new duties; but the afternoons were for
pleasure, until the autumnal business stirred up.

"I do wish young Beekman wouldn't come over here so much," Mrs.
Underhill said in a fretted tone, "or that he would take a real fancy to
Polly."

"They are just having a young people's good time," returned Joe.
"Polly's a nice girl. He might do worse."

"But I am afraid it is not Polly. He watches Hanny like a cat watching a
mouse."

"Nonsense!" declared Joe.

"But he does. And I don't like it."

"Oh, mother dear, you're a hen with one chick. If there is a rustle in
the leaves you think a hawk is going to pounce down."

"Hanny's too young to have lovers." She tried to keep her face in severe
lines.

"Hanny isn't thinking about lovers. And Peter is a fine, solid fellow,
who is going to make his mark, and who may be a sort of ballast to Jim.
I like him."

"Oh, he is well enough. But if there was any fuss it might annoy Dolly.
And we have always been so cordial; Margaret was married too young."

"And you were married too young. Now, if you had waited and done without
Steve and me, and begun with John--"

There was a twinkle in Doctor Joe's eye.

"I should have begun with the most sensible son," returned his mother;
but she could not keep her voice sharp.

"Well, I will look after Hanny and the young man. I think myself that we
don't need any more lovers right away."

She knew she could depend on him.

Then they had some anxiety at Ben's, and Delia's mother was away. Aunt
Boudinot had her third stroke, and lay insensible for several days, then
slipped out of life. Mrs. Underhill was quite surprised with Delia's
good sense, as she called it, and really she wasn't such a bad
housekeeper for a girl with no training.

There was the funeral, with some of New York's oldest families.
Afterward the will was read. Aunt Patty had made a new one on the death
of her sister.

There was a small legacy to the niece who had married; a remembrance to
several relatives and friends. The use of the house was to be Mrs.
Whitney's while she lived; at her death to be sold and divided between
her niece, Delia Whitney, and her grand-niece, Eleanora Whitney. And to
Delia Whitney, if she took faithful care of her until her death, the sum
of five thousand dollars in bank-stock.

She had taken faithful care of her, and would have done it out of the
kindness of her heart without any