essed in
silk and satin every day, and drove in her handsome carriage, with her
driver and footman in tall hats and long coats. She was thoroughly up in
etiquette, and did not need Susan to tell her what to do. She knew all
about visiting cards, and dinner cards, and cards of acceptance, and
regret, and condolence, and she read much oftener than she did her Bible
a book entitled 'Habits of Good Society.'

Three children played in the nursery now, Tom, and Jack, and baby Maude,
and she kept a nurse constantly for them, and strove with all her might
to instil into their infant minds that they were the Tracys of Tracy
Park, and entitled to due respect from their inferiors; and Tom, the boy
of ten and a half, had profited by her teaching, and was the veriest
little braggart in all Shannondale, boasting of his father's house, and
his father's money, without a word of the Uncle Arthur wandering no one
knew where, or cared particularly for that matter.

Arthur had never been home since the day he quitted it to look after Amy
Crawford, now lying in the grave-yard of Shannondale, under the shadow
of the tall monument which Arthur's money had bought. At first he had
written frequently to Mrs. Crawford, and occasionally to his brother,
and his agent, Mr. Colvin; then his letters came very irregularly, and
sometimes a year would intervene between them. Then he would write every
week, and he once told them not to be anxious if they did not hear from
him in a long time, as in case of his death he had arranged to have the
news communicated to his friends at once. After this letter nothing had
been heard from him for more than two years, until the morning when his
telegram came and so greatly disturbed the mental equilibrium of Mr.
Frank Tracy that for an hour or more he sat staring into the street in a
bewildered kind of way, wondering what would be the result of his
brother's return, and if he should be required to give up the
investments he had made from the exorbitant sum he had charged for
looking after the place. Once he thought he would ask Colvin's opinion;
but he was a little afraid of the old man, who had sometimes hinted that
his salary was far greater than the services rendered, but as Mr.
Arthur, to whom he made reports of the expenditures, had never objected,
it was not for him to do so, he said. And still Frank distrusted him,
and decided that, on the whole, his better plan was to wait, or at least
to consult no one but