he said, with his best manner, "but THIS--this is beyond our
wildest dreams."

Well, it's too awful to linger over. Anne took her upstairs and
into Bella's bedroom. It was a fancy of Jim's to leave that room
just as Bella had left it, dusty dance cards and favors hanging
around and a pair of discarded slippers under the bed. I don't
think it had been swept since Bella left it. I believe in
sentiment, but I like it brushed and dusted and the cobwebs off
of it, and when Aunt Selina put down her bonnet, it stirred up a
gray-white cloud that made her cough. She did not say anything,
but she looked around the room grimly, and I saw her run her
finger over the back of a chair before she let Hannah, the maid,
put her cloak on it.

Anne looked frightened. She ran into Bella's bath and wet the end
of a towel and when Hannah was changing Aunt Selina's collar--her
concession to evening dress--Anne wiped off the obvious places on
the furniture. She did it stealthily, but Aunt Selina saw her in
the glass.

"What's that young woman's name?" she asked me sharply, when Anne
had taken the towel out to hide it.

"Anne Brown, Mrs. Dallas Brown," I replied meekly. Every one
replied meekly to Aunt Selina.

"Does she live here?"

"Oh, no," I said airily. "They are here to dinner, she and her