," said the girl.
Three old hens and a rooster marched toward us with great solemnity when
we looked in. The cobwebs hung in the room, as they often do in old
barns, in long, gray festoons; the lilacs outside grew close against the
two windows where the shutters were not drawn, and the light in the room
was greenish and dim.

Then we took our places on the threshold, and the girl went up stairs
and announced us to Miss Sally, and in a few minutes we heard her come
along the hall.

"Sophia," said she, "where are the gentry waiting?" And just then she
came in sight round the turn of the staircase. She wore the same great
black bonnet and satin gown, and looked more old-fashioned and ghostly
than before. She was not tall, but very erect, in spite of her great
age, and her eyes seemed to "look through you" in an uncanny way. She
slowly descended the stairs and came toward us with a courteous
greeting, and when we had introduced ourselves as Miss Carew's friends
she gave us each her hand in a most cordial way and said she was pleased
to see us. She bowed us into the parlor and brought us two rickety,
straight-backed chairs, which, with an old table, were all the furniture
there was in the room. "Sit ye down," said she, herself taking a place
in the window-seat. I have seen few more elegant women than Miss
Chauncey. Thoroughly at her ease, she had the manner of a lady of the
olden times, using the quaint fashion of speech which she had been
taught in her girlhood. The long words and ceremonious phrases suited
her extremely well. Her hands were delicately shaped, and she folded
them in her lap, as no doubt she had learned to do at boarding-school so
many years before. She asked Kate and me if we knew any young ladies at
that school in Boston, saying that most of her intimate friends had left
when she did, but some of the younger ones were there still.

She asked for the Carews and Mr. Lorimer, and when Kate told her that
she was Miss Brandon's niece, and asked if she had not known her, she
said, "Certainly, my dear; we were intimate friends at one time, but I
have seen her little of late."

"Do you not know that she is dead?" asked Kate.

"Ah, they say every one is 'dead,' nowadays. I do not comprehend the
silly idea!" said the old lady, impatiently. "It is an excuse, I
suppose. She could come to see me if she chose, but she was always a
ceremonious body, and I go abroad but seldom now; so perhaps she waits
my visit. I w