the arrival in New York of the Brownes, and
was talking with Hannah Jerrold, who had come over to see her, when the
carriage containing Mr. and Mrs. Browne, Augusta and Lord Hardy, came
into view across the common.

"Why, that's the Brownes!" she exclaimed. "Are they home? and who is
that tow-headed chap with them? Not Allen, surely?"

Hannah explained that the Brownes were expected that afternoon, and that
an Irish lord was coming with them, and that half Ridgeville had gone to
the station to meet them.

"Irish fiddlesticks! After Augusta's money, of course," Miss Betsey
returned, with a snort, but whatever else she might have said was cut
short by the appearance of the phaeton with Allen and Daisy in it.

"I wonder who she is. I hope she stares well. Seems to me I have seen
her before," Miss Betsey said, adding, as Daisy half inclined her head,
and smiled upon her, "Who can she be? Somebody they have picked up to
make a splurge with. A widow, at any rate."

"Oh, yes, I remember now to have heard from the cook at Ridge House that
an English lady was to accompany the family home, and--yes, her name was
McPherson, too--Lady McPherson, the cook called her. This is she, no
doubt."

"Lady McPherson," Miss Betsey repeated "There is no Lady McPherson
except my brother's wife, Lady Jane, and she is almost as dried up and
yellow by this time as I am, while this lady is young, and--good
gracious! It is she! The Jezebel! Lady McPherson indeed!" and Miss
Betsey sprang to her feet so energetically as to startle her visitor,
who had no idea what she meant.

The face seen on the terrace at Aberystwyth years ago had come back to
Miss Betsey, and she felt sure that she had just seen it again, smiling
upon Allen Browne as it had then smiled upon Lord Hardy. But why in
widow's weeds? Was Archie dead? she asked herself, as she resumed her
seat and tried to seem natural.

Hannah saw that something ailed her; but she was too well bred to ask
any questions, and soon took her leave.

Alone with her own thoughts, Miss Betsey fell to soliloquizing:

"That letter was written long ago; Archie may be dead, and this painted
gambler has gulled the Brownes and come to America as their guest, with
the snipper-snapper of a Hardy. I must find out if Archie is dead, and
what has become of the girl."

After she had had her tea. Miss Betsey ordered her old white horse and
old-fashioned buggy to be brought round, and started for a drive, takin