stepping back a pace and looking her over critically;
"my baby's gone--you've filled out to be a woman."




CHAPTER II



SPRING BLOSSOMS


For days the neighbors in and about the village of
Warehold had been looking forward to Lucy's home-
coming as one of the important epochs in the history
of the Manor House, quite as they would have
done had Lucy been a boy and the expected function
one given in honor of the youthful heir's majority.
Most of them had known the father and mother of
these girls, and all of them loved Jane, the gentle
mistress of the home--a type of woman eminently
qualified to maintain its prestige.

It had been a great house in its day. Built in
early Revolutionary times by Archibald Cobden, who
had thrown up his office under the Crown and openly
espoused the cause of the colonists, it had often been
the scene of many of the festivities and social events
following the conclusion of peace and for many years