isn't Mrs. Marvin at all, but
Mrs. Richards. It is as good as a play."

Mrs. Bond actually dropped her hands in her lap, as she asked, "Do you
mean there isn't any such person as Mrs. Marvin?"

"Of course there is a Mrs. Marvin. She was staying at our house while
Miss Frances was abroad,--she is her cousin,--and the first sewing you
did was for her. I did not think of explaining, so you went on supposing
it was all for Mrs. Marvin. Then when Miss Frances found out that
Frances thought she was Mrs. Marvin, she asked me not to tell you any
different. I couldn't understand why, then."

"Why should she care who I thought she was?" Mrs. Bond asked, taking up
her sewing.

"It is plain enough now. You see, she and Mr. Jack had had a quarrel
years ago, and she had not seen or heard of him since; then one day, you
know, Frances came to our house with Emma, and Mrs. Richards saw her and
knew right away who she was, and was mightily taken with her, but she
didn't want Frances or her mother to know that she was Mr. Morrison's
aunt; don't you see?

"You may say it happened," Caroline continued, "but I say the Lord
brought it about. Why should that child walk into the library and stand
before her great-grandmother's portrait, and Miss Frances come in and
find her there, looking as much like Mr. Jack when he was little as two
peas! Isn't he a splendid man! and just his old self. Why, when he came
out yesterday, he ran upstairs to my room calling out just as he used
to do,--'Where's Caroline?' It made me too happy to sleep."

"Did Mr. Morrison live at your house once?" Emma ventured to ask.

"Of course he did. When his mother died Miss Frances adopted him. He was
six years old, and it was the same year I went to live with her,--thirty
years this spring. You see, Mr. Jack's father, who was Mrs. Richards'
favorite brother, was thrown from his horse and killed when his little
boy was only three. It was a dreadful blow to the whole family; his wife
did not outlive him long, and his father, Judge Morrison, never
recovered from the shock, for his only other son was an invalid.

"I used to think nobody had as much trouble as Miss Frances. She married
very young and was left a widow before she was twenty-two, and it seemed
as if Mr. Jack was her only comfort, for her father's mind began to
fail, and the old home was so changed she couldn't bear to go there; but
she was wrapped up in the child.

"In those days he wasn't hard to manag