and although they paid her all manner of compliments, and said various
pretty things in admiration of her charming daughter, it was evident
that they regarded her as a rare curiosity, whose mental defects were
affording them a subject for amusement. There the lady stood, receiving
the congratulations of her friends and introducing her daughter Mattie,
who was dressed in a plain blue silk with white trimmings, a wreath of
orange blossoms on her head, and her golden hair hanging in simple curls
down her shoulders. Indeed, the lady suffered by comparison with her
daughter, whose charms were made more fascinating by the simplicity of
her dress and the quietness of her manners.

In truth, Mattie had no taste for the show and extravagance her mother
was so fond of indulging in. Nor could she see what object her mother
had, or what really was to be gained by giving this ball. She felt in
her heart that it was a piece of extravagance her father could not
afford as an honest man, and she saw prominent among the guests persons
she had long mistrusted of being his enemies. Gay as the scene was it
had nothing in it to interest her. Her thoughts were engaged in
something more real and true. They were wandering just then into a
distant ocean in search of the object dearest in her affections,
wondering how it fared with him. Then the picture of Hanz and Angeline,
in their humble little home, revealed itself to her, and her mind filled
with strange fancies as to the part she might have to perform in saving
them from the trouble she saw foreshadowed in her father's conversation
with Topman and Gusher. She little knew what sorrow had been brought
into Hanz's home since she left Nyack; nor did it occur to her that old
Father Hanz, as she playfully called him, might even then be within the
sound of her voice.

The company had all assembled, the musicians were beginning to tune