the
Baron as a guest for a fortnight, Millard would advise him to accept the
invitation, and, as far as possible, would relieve Mr. Hilbrough of his
share of the burden by taking the Baron about. This would furnish Mrs.
Hilbrough with a good excuse for giving a reception to the nobleman, and
then, without any appearance of pushing, she could invite people far
afield.

It was not in the nature of things that a woman in Mrs. Hilbrough's
position should refuse to entertain a baron. She saw many incidental
advantages in the plan, not the least of which was that Mr. Millard
would be a familiar in the house during the Baron's stay. Hilbrough
acquiesced with a rueful sense that he should be clumsy enough at
entertaining a foreigner and a man of title. Mrs. Hilbrough thanked
Millard heartily for his obliging kindness, but what he cared most for
was that Miss Callender's serious face shone with pleasure and
gratitude.

Having accepted another invitation for the evening, Millard took his
leave soon after ten o'clock, proposing to come at a later time to help
Mrs. Hilbrough--"and Miss Callender, I hope," he added with a bow to
Phillida--to make up the list. Having but two blocks to go, he declined,
in favor of Miss Callender, the Hilbrough carriage, which stood ready at
the door.

The close carriage, with only Phillida for occupant, rattled down Fifth
Avenue to Madison Square, and along Broadway to Union Square, then over
eastward by Fourteenth street, until after a turn or two it waked the
echoes rudely in a quiet cross street, stopping at length before a
three-story house somewhat antique and a little broader than its
neighbors. Phillida closed and bolted the outer doors, and then opened
one of the inner ones with a night-key, and made her way to what had
been the back parlor of the house. In that densification of population
which proceeds so incessantly on Manhattan Island this old house, like
many another, was modernly compelled to hold more people than it had
been meant for in the halcyon days when Second Avenue was a fashionable
thoroughfare. The second floor of the house had been let, without board,
to a gentleman and his wife, and the rooms above to single gentlemen.
The parlor floor and the basement were made to accommodate the mother
and her two daughters with their single servant. The simple, old back
parlor, with no division but a screen, had two beds for mother and
daughters, while the well-lighted extension made