s the carriage left the more congested quarter of the city.

Kate frowned. "Yes," she answered. "I wanted Commonwealth Avenue, but
Mr. Blake preferred Beacon. All his people live on Beacon, and have
for years."

"Oh, but Beacon is lovely, I think."

"Do you? Well, perhaps; but Commonwealth is so much wider and more
roomy. I could breathe on Commonwealth Avenue, I think!"

"And don't you, where you are?" laughed Mrs. Howland.

Her niece made a playfully wry face.

"Just pant--upon my word I do! Not one full breath do I draw," she
asserted.

"Hm-m; I've always understood that deep breathing was necessary for
health," commented Mrs. Howland, with a critical, comprehensive glance;
"but--you seem to thrive all right! You are looking well, Kate."

"I don't feel so. I have the most shocking headaches," the other
retorted. "Ah, here we are!"

Mrs. Howland followed her hostess up a short flight of stone steps into
a handsome hall. A well-trained maid was at once in attendance, and
another, a little later, helped her unpack.

"My dear," Mrs. Howland said to her niece when she came downstairs,
"what a lucky woman you are to have two such maids! They are
treasures!"

Kate's hands flew to her head with a gesture of despair.

"Maids!--Aunt Ellen, don't ever say the word to me, I beg! I never
keep one more than a month, and I'm shaking in my shoes this very
minute. There's a new cook in the kitchen, and I have n't the least
idea what your dinner will be."

"I 'm not a bit worried," rejoined Mrs. Howland. "What a pretty home
you have, Kate," she added, tactfully changing the subject.

"Think so? I'm glad you like it. I sometimes wish I could get hold of
the man who built this house, though, and give him a piece of my mind.
The rooms on this floor are so high studded they give me the shivers,
while all the chambers are so low they are absurd. Did n't you notice
it in your room?"

"Why--no; I don't think I did."

"Well, you will now."

"Perhaps so, since you have told me to," returned Mrs. Howland, a
curious smile on her lips.

The dinner was well planned, well cooked, and well served, in Mrs.
Howland's opinion, though to her niece it was none of the three.
Kate's husband, the Honorable Eben Blake, proved to be a genial,
distinguished-looking man who welcomed Mrs. Howland with the cordiality
that he displayed toward anybody or anything connected in the most
remote degree with his wife. It was evi