But Anna was away over the fields, enjoying with Mr. Everett a walk
which had been planned the night previous, and when 'Lena returned
with the intelligence that she was nowhere to be found, her aunt in
great distress exclaimed, "Mercy me! what will Mrs. Graham think--and
Mr. Livingstone, too, keeps running back and forth for somebody to
entertain her. What shall I do! I can't go in looking so yellow and
jaded as I now do!"

'Lena's first thought was to bring her aunt's powderball, as the
surest way of remedying the yellow skin, but knowing that such an act
would be deeply resented, she quickly repressed the idea, offering
instead to go herself to the parlor.

"_You_! What could _you_ say to her?" returned Mrs. Livingstone, to
whom the proposition was not altogether displeasing.

"I can at least answer her questions," returned 'Lena and after a
moment her aunt consented, wondering the while how 'Lena, in her
plain gingham wrapper and linen collar, could be willing to meet the
fashionable Mrs. Graham.

"But then," thought she, "she has so little sensibility, I don't
s'pose she cares! and why should she? Mrs. Graham will of course
look upon her as only a little above a servant"--and with this
complimentary reflection upon her niece, Mrs. Livingstone retired to
her dressing-room, while 'Lena, with a beating heart and slightly
heightened color, repaired to the parlor.

On a sofa by the window sat Mrs. Graham, and the moment 'Lena's eye