The small amount of baggage which the lady brought with her would have
led the superficial observer to infer that Miss Abigail's visit was
limited to a few days. I run ahead of my story in saying she remained
seventeen years! How much longer she would have remained can never be
definitely known now, as she died at the expiration of that period.

Whether or not my grandfather was quite pleased by this unlooked-for
addition to his family is a problem. He was very kind always to Miss
Abigail, and seldom opposed her; though I think she must have tried his
patience sometimes, especially when she interfered with Kitty.

Kitty Collins, or Mrs. Catherine, as she preferred to be called,
was descended in a direct line from an extensive family of kings who
formerly ruled over Ireland. In consequence of various calamities,
among which the failure of the potato-crop may be mentioned, Miss
Kitty Collins, in company with several hundred of her countrymen and
countrywomen--also descended from kings--came over to America in an
emigrant ship, in the year eighteen hundred and something.

I don't know what freak of fortune caused the royal exile to turn up
at Rivermouth; but turn up she did, a few months after arriving in this
country, and was hired by my grandmother to do "general housework" for
the sum of four shillings and six-pence a week.

Kitty had been living about seven years in my grandfather's family when
she unburdened her heart of a secret which had been weighing upon it all
that time. It may be said of people, as it is said of nations, "Happy
are they that have no history." Kitty had a history, and a pathetic one,
I think.