thanks you JUST as much." They were always close to their mother
when it was possible, and she only banished them from her side when
the conversation grew undeniably too old in tone for Joanna and
Ellen, and then liked to keep them in sight, have them come in with
the tea-tray, or wave to her occasionally from the river bank.

"We've been wondering what you would do with this magnificent
drawing-room," said Mrs. White, on her first visit. "The house ought
to take a colonial treatment wonderfully--there's a remarkable man
in San Francisco who simply made our house over for us last year!"

"It must have been a fearful upheaval," said Mrs. Burgoyne,
sympathetically.

"Oh, we went away! Mr. White and I went east, and when we came back
it was all done."

"Well, fortunately," said the mistress of Holly Hall cheerfully, as
she sugared Mrs. Apostleman's cup of tea, "fortunately all these
things of Mrs. Holly's were in splendid condition, except for a
little cleaning and polishing. They used to make things so much more
solid, don't you think so? Why, there are years of wear left in
these carpets, and the chairs and tables are like rocks! Captain
Holly apparently got the very best of everything when he furnished
this place, and I reap the benefit. It's so nice to feel that one
needn't buy a chair or a bed for ten years or more, if one doesn't
want to!"

"Dear, sweet people, the Hollys," said Mrs. White, pleasantly,
utterly at a loss. Did people of the nicer class speak of furniture