not at home,' said his smiling lady, 'but you can
leave the message with me.'

"'Ah, yes!' said Mr. Townsend, with evident embarrassment; 'no
doubt you will do equally as well. I called, my dear madam,
to--ah--solicit a great boon at your hands. You are aware how
bitterly I have been betrayed by those whom I trusted.'

"'Yes,' put in Mrs. Crane, sympathetically.

"'And you have, I know, felt for my lonely and desolate situation.'

"'I have, indeed,' said the lady.

"'Since I have been intimately acquainted with your charming
family, I have learned to value, and, in short, feel a deep
attachment, for one whom, I believe, fate intended to fill the
place of my lost loves!'

"'My own Lucinda!' interrupted the other, raising her handkerchief
to conceal her satisfaction. 'Dear girl, it will be hard to part
with her. You cannot realize a mother's feelings, Mr. Townsend!'

"'But,' cried the gentleman, in tones of surprise and alarm, 'I do
not call upon you for so great a sacrifice. It was not Miss Lucinda
that I meant, but another, to whom I have reason to think I am not
altogether disagreeable. Surely you cannot be ignorant of my
profound affection for your self-sacrificing sister, the widow of
my late respected friend, Deane Phelps!'

"'Oh!' tittered Mrs. Crane, starting with great violence from her
seat; 'you mean Jane. Well, I'm glad she's got somebody to think
something of her at last. I congratulate you upon the prize you've
won. I shall make all haste to impart the agreeable intelligence.'

"'You artful specimen of an underhand nobody!' said Mrs. P.
Crandall, bursting into the room where the little widow stood,
looking really pretty with her soft flush of happy expectation in
her face. 'You'll rue this day, if I live!'

"'Oh, sister, don't!' said the low, grieved voice of the other. 'I
do so want your love and sympathy.'

"'Love and sympathy be d-d-darned!' sputtered Mrs. Crane, working
her long fingers convulsively. 'Walk out of this room in a hurry,
before I scratch your eyes out, you soft little caterpillar!'

"'Ruined! ruined! ruined!' she cried, sinking down and bursting
into a passionate flood of tears. 'Everything goes crossways. This
is a doomed family. Crane can't keep up appearances a week longer,
and Lucinda w