day of September, as
Mr. King has finished his business and Electa is wild to see her
children. I think I shall give 'talks' all winter and invite you over to
Sudbury Street, with your sewing, for I never shall be talked out."

It was wonderful. Doris had to read the letter over and over. It had
listeners at the Royall house who said it was a perfect romance, and at
the Leveretts' they rejoiced greatly.

"I declare!" exclaimed Aunt Priscilla, "if you should live to be fifty
or sixty, and everybody go on leaving you fortunes, you won't know what
to do with your money. They're filling up the Mill Pond and the big
ma'sh and going to lay out streets. I wouldn't have believed it! Foster
Leverett held on to his legacy because he couldn't sell it, and now
Warren has been offered a good sum. Mary Manning will pinch herself blue
to think she sold out when she did. I'm just glad for Warren. And
Cary'll know so much law that he will look out for you."

It was a beautiful autumn, for a wonder. Summer seemed loath to depart
or allow the flame-colored finger of Fall to place her seal on the
glowing foliage. But it was the last of October when Betty reached
Boston, convoyed by a very old-time New England woman going on to
Newburyport.

"For you know," said Betty, "the French are very particular about a
young woman traveling alone, but we did have a hunt to find someone
coming to Boston. Otherwise M'sieur Henri--you see how apt I am in
French--could not have accompanied me."

M. de la Maur was a very nice-looking young man, not as tall as Cary,
but with a graceful and manly figure, soft dark eyes, and hair that just
missed being black, a clear complexion and fine color, and a small line
of mustache. As to manners he was really charming, and so well-read that
Mr. Winthrop Adams took to him at once. He was conversant with Voltaire
and Rousseau, the plays of Racine and Moliere, and the causes that had
led to the French Revolution, and had been in Paris through the famous
"Hundred Days." Of course he was bitter against Napoleon.

The inheritance part was soon settled. Doris would have about three
thousand dollars. But De la Maur took a great fancy to Boston, and the
Royall family approved of him. Mr. and Mrs. Sargent had returned this
fall and the old house was a center of attractive gayeties.

"Do you know, I think Cousin Henri is in love with Betty," said Doris,
with a feminine habit of guessing at love matters. "But she insists s