to teach. Part of the curriculum was an enforced
absence from home of two years, during which
time none of her own people were to visit her except
in case of emergency.

To-night, the once famous house shone with something
of its old-time color. The candles were lighted
in the big bronze candelabra--the ones which came
from Paris; the best glass and china and all the old
plate were brought out and placed on the sideboard
and serving-tables; a wood fire was started (the nights
were yet cold), its cheery blaze lighting up the brass
fender and andirons before which many of Colonel
Cobden's cronies had toasted their shins as they
sipped their toddies in the old days; easy-chairs
and hair-cloth sofas were drawn from the walls; the
big lamps lighted, and many minor details perfected
for the comfort of the expected guests.

Jane entered the drawing-room in advance of Lucy
and was busying herself putting the final touches
to the apartment,--arranging the sprays of blossoms
over the clock and under the portrait of Morton Cobden,
which looked calmly down on the room from its
place on the walls, when the door opened softly and
Martha--the old nurse had for years been treated
as a member of the family--stepped in, bowing and
curtsying as would an old woman in a play, the
skirt of her new black silk gown that Ann Gossaway
had made for her held out between her plump fingers,