d, had joined in the game, claiming
"forfeits" from Anna more frequently than was considered at all
necessary by the captain, who for a time looked jealously on, and
then declaring himself as young as any of them, joined them with a
right good will.

"Blind man's buff," was next proposed, and 'Lena's heart leaped up,
for that was her favorite game. John Jr. was first blinded, but he
caught them so easily that all declared he could see, and loud were
the calls for Durward to take his place. This he willingly did, and
whether he could see or not, he suffered them to pass directly under
his hands, thus giving entire satisfaction. On account of the heat
of the rooms, Anna, on passing the glass door, threw it open, and the
next time Durward came round he marched directly into the hall,
seizing 'Lena, who was trying to hide.

Feeling her long curls, he exclaimed, "Anna, you are caught."

"No, I ain't Anna; let me go," said 'Lena, struggling to escape.

This brought all the girls to the spot, while Durward, snatching the
muffler from his eyes, looked down with astonishment upon the
trembling 'Lena, who would have escaped had she not been so securely
hemmed in.

"Ain't you ashamed, 'Lena, to be peeking?" asked Carrie, while
Durward repeated--"'_Lena_! '_Lena_! I've seen her before in the
cars between Springfield and Albany; but how came she here?"

"She lives here--she's our cousin," said Anna, notwithstanding the
twitch given to her sleeve by Carrie, who did not care to have the
relationship exposed.

"Your cousin," said Durward, "and where's the old lady who was with
her?"

"The one she called _granny_?" asked John Jr., on purpose to rouse up
his fiery little cousin.

"No, I don't call her _granny_, neither--I've quit it," said 'Lena,
angrily, adding, as a sly hit at Kentucky talk, "she's up _stars_,
sick with the rheumatism."

"Good," said Durward, "but why are you not down here with us?"

"I didn't want to come," was her reply; and Durward, leading her into
the parlor, continued, "but now that you are here, you must stay."

"Pretty, isn't she," said Nellie, as the full blaze of the chandelier
fell upon 'Lena.

"Rath-er," was Carrie's hesitating reply.

She felt annoyed that 'Lena should be in the parlor, and provoked
that Durward should notice her in any way, and at the first
opportunity she told him "how much she both troubled and mortified
them, by her vulgarity and obstinacy," adding that "she had