his father's heart and betrayed a manly spirit.

Betty returned home, though Mrs. King declared she only lent her for a
visit. She was very stylish now, and was studying French, for it might
be possible that Mr. King would go abroad and take his wife and Betty.

"I do wonder if you will ever settle down?" exclaimed Mrs. Leverett
anxiously. That meant marriage and housekeeping.

Betty laughed. "You know I have settled to be the old maid aunt," she
returned. "But I am going to have a good young time first. And, mother,
you can hardly realize what a fine, generous, broad-minded man Mat King
has made."

There were lovely odds and ends of attire, dainty slippers, long gloves
that came to your very shoulders, vandyke capes of beautiful lace,
buckles that looked like diamonds, ribbons and belts and sashes. Mercy
said Betty could go down to Washington Street and open a fancy-goods
store. And, oh, the delightful things she had seen and done, the skating
parties in the winter, the sleigh rides when one stopped at a cozy,
well-kept tavern and had a dainty supper and a dance. The drives down
around the Battery and Bowling Green, and the promenades. There were
still a good many military men in New York, but it had not suffered as
much from the war as Boston.

But Boston was growing beautiful by the hour, with her pretty private
gardens and hundreds of fruit trees blooming everywhere, and the great
Common where people went for walks on sunny afternoons.

Miss Recompense had a gorgeous tulip bed and some lilies of the valley,
which were quite a new thing. Cato trimmed and trained the roses and
vines, and the old Adams house was quite a bower of beauty.

One April afternoon Doris sat by the study window doing some lace work,
while Solomon lay curled up on the sill. She kept glancing out. People
were quite given to going around this corner to get into Common Street.
She liked to see them. Now and then a friend nodded. Uncle Win had been
reading aloud from "Jerusalem Delivered," but Doris thought it rather
prosy, and strayed off into her own thoughts.

A tall, soldierly fellow came up the street, looked, hesitated, opened
the gate softly, and glanced down at the tulips. He was quite imposing
as to figure, and his complexion was bronzed, the ends of his brown hair
rather long and curling. He was in citizen clothes, and Doris wondered
why she should think of Lieutenant Hawthorne. She had expected Cary in
all the glory of a naval un