er new abode. "Ring very loud and long,
Philip; I am dying to be in!"

The door is almost immediately opened by a buxom maiden with rosy
cheeks and a lenient smile, which alights on the youthful mistress.
Eleanor bounds into the hall, and waves a feather boa joyfully over her
head.

"Hurrah! _Ancestors_," she cries, saluting the old pictures on the
wall with mock courtesy. "Real dead ancestors in wigs, and you _never_
told me, Philip!"

[Illustration: Saluting the old pictures on the wall with mock
courtesy.]

She is standing, gazing on them joyfully as the luggage is brought in,
pointing with her umbrella at a wrinkled judge.

"They have seldom received such admiration," he says gently. "Poor old
things, they disfigure the walls sadly with their grim faces."

"The lady on the left is simpering; and, oh! here is a tiger rug,"
stumbling over a head on the ground. "I caught my heel on his nose,"
as Philip prevents her falling by seizing her elbow.

"Show me which is my room. I am longing to see it," she continues,
taking two steps at a time in her eager ascent. "Sarah," calling to
her maid, "bring those three hat boxes and my cloak, there's a good
soul! Come on, Philip, I'll race you to the top."

He feels as if he is playing with a child, as he rushes over the house
after Eleanor. The day of the school treat returns to his mind, he
fancies he sees her still, running through the long grass.

"Everything is beautiful," she gasps, clasping her hands. "There's a
room to be frivolous and lazy in, a study for book learning (I'm going
to read no end) and, oh! if you want to sing----"

She draws a deep breath at the remembrance of the grand piano in the
drawing-room. "It is ever so much bigger than the one at the vicarage,
which was always out of tune. I'll get my cousin Joe to send me a list
of songs, and we will buy a harmonium, too, Philip. I can play the
harmonium splendidly."

"I am glad you are pleased, Eleanor," ha replies, kissing her upturned
face.

"And now, I am going to dress, for I feel horrible after my journey.
May I ring for Sarah?"

"Of course. What a question! Do exactly as you like with your own
servants."

She finds Sarah in her room busily unpacking.

"Oh! there you are," cries Eleanor. "I forgot I had given you my keys.
It is such a blessing to be able to talk in English, that foreign stuff
was awful, I could not speak a word! Yes, I will wear my lovely pink
tea-gown--d