forgiveness, and then added: "Mrs. Van Vechten will not require your
services, for she received a letter to-night, saying her presence was
needed at home, and she leaves us to-morrow."

"_And Ben?_" she asked--"does he go, too?"

"He accompanies his mother to New York," Mr. Browning said, "and I
believe she intends leaving him there with a friend, until his school
commences again."

In spite of herself, Rosamond rather liked Ben, and feeling that she
was the cause of his banishment from Riverside, her sympathy was
enlisted for him, and she said, "If I were not here, Ben would stay.
Hadn't you rather send me away?"

"No, Rosamond, no;--I need you here," was Mr. Browning's reply, and
then as the clock struck eleven, he bade her leave him, saying it was
time children like her were in bed.

As he had said, Mis. Van Vechten was going away, and she came down to
breakfast next morning in her traveling dress, appearing very
unamiable, and looking very cross at Rosamond, with whom she finally
parted without a word of reconciliation. Ben, on the contrary, was all
affability, and managed slyly to kiss her, telling her he should come
there again in spite of his mother.

After their departure the household settled back into its usual
monotonous way of living, with the exception that Rosamond, being
promoted to the position of an equal, became, in many respects, the
real mistress of Riverside, though Mrs. Peters nominally held the