allowing you to wear the girls' old
duds, which would otherwise be given to the blacks, and in permitting
you to recite to Mr. Everett, who, of course, was hired on your
account."

The slamming together of the door as 'Lena left the room brought the
young gentleman's remarks to a close, and wishing to escape the
lecture which he saw was preparing for him, he, too, made his exit.

Christmas was coming, and with it Durward Bellmont, and about his
coming Mrs. Livingstone felt some little anxiety. Always scheming,
and always looking ahead, she was expecting great results from this
visit. Durward was not only immensely wealthy, but was also
descended on his father's side from one of England's noblemen.
Altogether he was, she thought, a "decided catch," and though he was
now only sixteen, while Carrie was but thirteen, lifelong impressions
had been made at even an earlier period, and Mrs. Livingstone
resolved that her pretty daughter should at least have all the
advantages of dress with which to set off her charms. Concerning
Anna's appearance she cared less, for she had but little hope of her,
unless, indeed--but 'twas too soon to think of that--she would wait,
and perhaps in good time 't would all come round naturally and as a
matter of course. So she encouraged her daughter's intimacy with
Captain Atherton, who, until Malcolm Everett appeared, was in Anna's
estimation the best man living. Now, however, she made an exception
in favor of her teacher, "who," as she told the captain, "neither
wore false teeth, nor kept in his pocket a pair of specks, to be
slyly used when he fancied no one saw him."

Captain Atherton coughed, colored, laughed, and saying that "Mr.
Everett was a mash kind of a boy," swore eternal enmity toward him,
and under the mask of friendship--watched! Eleven years before, when
Anna was a baby, Mrs. Livingstone had playfully told the captain, who
was one day deploring his want of a wife, that if he would wait he
should have her daughter. To this he agreed, and the circumstance,
trivial as it was, made a more than ordinary impression upon his
mind; and though he as yet had no definite idea that the promise
would ever be fulfilled, the little girl was to him an object of
uncommon interest. Mrs. Livingstone knew this, and whenever Anna's
future prospects were the subject of her meditations, she generally
fell back upon that fact as an item not to be despised.

Now, however, her thoughts were tur