him angry, and he repeated it with a quick shutting together
of his teeth.

"Smith!" he said, "I can't abide it! And what has she to say to Mrs.
Smith?"

The note was not sealed, and without the least hesitancy he opened it
and read, commenting as he did so.

"My dear Mrs. Smith." (Her dear Mrs. Smith! I like that.) "I am going
away (Glad to hear it) and I wish to thank you for the many things you
have sent me. (The deuce she has! I didn't know it.) The pretty hat I
want to keep, with the slippers, which remind me of my mother.
(Slippers,--remind her of her mother, who, I dare say, never wore
anything but big shoes, and coarse at that," the Colonel growled, and
read on.) The chairs I return, with my thanks for them, and the fruit
and flowers and books. I would like so much to see you, and thank you
personally, but as this cannot be I must do it on paper. Be assured I
shall never forget your kindness to me, a stranger.

"Your very truly,

"E.A. SMITH."

"Smith again! E.A. Smith!" the Colonel said. "Why couldn't she write her
whole name? E.A., ELIZA ANN, of course! That's who she is, ELIZA ANN
SMITH!"

If there was one name he disliked as much as he did Smith, it was Eliza
Ann, and he repeated it again: "ELIZA ANN SMITH! Fruit and flowers and
books, and shoes and my sea chair and a wheel chair sent to her by Amy!
Where did she get the wheel, I'd like to know? I don't believe it!" he
added, as a sudden light broke upon him. "It's that dog Howard's work,
and that other chap."

Ringing the bell which stood on the table beside him, he bade Cora, who
appeared, to send Mrs. Amy to him. Amy had not slept well, and was more
easily confused than usual, but she came and asked what he wanted. It
did not occur to him to give her the note, which he kept in his hand
while he said, in a much softer tone than that in which he had been
talking to himself, "Have you sent things to Eliza Ann Smith,--fruit and
flowers and books, and my sea chair and a wheel chair, and a bonnet and
shoes, and the Lord knows what else?"

Amy was bewildered at once.

"Eliza Ann Smith!" she repeated. "I don't know her. Who is she?"

"Why, the girl that jammed a hole in Brutus's neck and stained the
cushions of my carriage, and broke her leg at Mrs. Biggs's," the Colonel
replied.

At the mention of Mrs. Biggs, Amy's face brightened. Since the day after
the accident, when she sent the hat and slippers, Eloise had not been
mentioned in her presenc