ke?" retired with a courtesy.

Alice laughed quite heartily after she was gone. "The idea of a black
girl to help me put on a plain muslin frock, and twist my ringlets into
a little smoother curl!" said she. "I could array myself to meet a queen
in ten minutes."

Thus speaking, she took from her trunk a snowy India muslin frock. It
fastened low over her finely-formed shoulders, and a chain of red coral
round her neck, with bracelets of the same material on her delicate
wrists, completed her toilet. With her own rare grace of motion, she
glided down the hall stairs, and into the presence of her aunt, who rose
from the soft-cushioned chair in which she had been reclining, with an
expression half terror, half anger, distorting her features.

"Mercy, mercy! Another trial to my weak nerves!" she exclaimed. "Thisbe,
my nerve-reviver instantly!"

The servant flew from the room, and returned with a small, silver-headed
vial, which the lady applied to her nostrils, and soon grew calm.

Alice stood all the while dismayed at the confusion her sudden entrance
had occasioned, and the three cousins, perched on cushioned stools,
gazed on her with curious eyes. The aunt at length got sufficiently
revived to speak.

"Now, Miss Orville, my long-since-departed brother's only child, advance
to embrace your affectionate aunt!"

Alice came forward with a gentle, inimitable grace, and, extending her
hand, said,

"How do you do, aunt? I am sorry to have made you so ill."

"That is right, Miss Orville! you should be so. My nerves are delicate;
the least disturbance sets them all a tremble, and no one understands my
nerves; no one appreciates my nerves. Now I will present you to your
cousins. I call my daughters my three jewels. The eldest, and belle and
beauty, as we call her, is not at home, being in the city of Mobile at
present. Her name is Isadora Gabriella Celestina Camford. You will
behold her in due time, I trust. My second child is a son. I call him my
brilliant among my jewels. Daniel Henry Thomas Lewis John Camford come
forward to greet Miss Alice Orville."

The lad thus called on, rose, stretched himself, and coming up to Alice
said, "How d'ye do, cous.?"

The young girl received his extended hand kindly, and, after gazing for
the space of a full minute straight in her face, he resumed his seat.

"Very well done, my brilliant son!" said the mother. "Next in order
comes my second jewel. Now Dulcinea Ophelia Ambrosia Jose