a little rift in the cloud of
pain.

The next evening Captain Hawthorne came over to bid them a formal
good-by. Helen Chapman and her lover and Eudora were there, so it was an
unembarrassing affair with many good wishes on both sides.

Doris thought she would like to run away and hide. It seemed as if the
whole story was written in her face. Betty suspected, but she loved her
too well to tease. And almost immediately Helen announced her
arrangements. She was to be married in October. Doris and Cary must
stand with her, and one of the Chapman cousins with Eudora. Another warm
girl friend and her lover would complete the party. Grandmamma had
stipulated that Mr. Harrison Gray should cast in his lot with them for a
year. Mr. Sargent had been attached to the embassy at London and they
would remain two years longer at least. Madam Royall could not bear to
have the family shrink so rapidly.

Betty was to go away again. Mr. and Mrs. Matthias King came together
this time to see old friends and Boston, that Mr. King found wonderfully
changed. He was to go to France on business for the firm of which he was
a member, and be absent a year at least. It would be such a splendid
chance for Betty. They were to take their own little Bessy and leave the
three younger children with a friend who had a school for small people
and who would give them a mother's care.

There was a little grandson in Sudbury Street, and Mercy had proved a
very agreeable daughter-in-law. Warren had begun to prosper again, and
was full of hope. The children at Hollis Leverett's were growing
rapidly. They no longer said "little Sam." He was almost a young man. He
had taken the Franklin prize at the Latin School and was now apprenticed
to an architect and builder, and would set up for himself when he came
of age, as Boston had begun to build up rapidly. But he couldn't help
envying Cousin Cary Adams his prize money and wondering what he meant to
do with it.

An invitation to go to Paris was not to be lightly declined then, any
more than it would be now. Mrs. Manning did not see "how Betty could
leave mother for so long," but Mrs. Leverett was in good health, and
though she hated to have her go so far away, there really could be no
objection, when Matthias King was so generous.

"I am going to have some of my good times while we are together and able
to enjoy them," he said to Mrs. Leverett. "I shall have to leave Electa
alone every now and then while I am a