said. "Do you think you are going to take this village by storm?
That house is the Temple of Vesta. It is inhabited by the Vestal
Virgins, who tend the sacred fire, and do other things beside. You
might as well ask to be taken into the meeting-house to board."

"This is more attractive than the meetinghouse," said the young
doctor. "This is one of the most attractive houses I ever saw."

He looked at it earnestly, and as they drove along the elm-shaded
street, he turned in his seat to look at it again.

It certainly was an attractive house. Its front of bright clean red
brick was perhaps too near the street; but the garden, whose tall
lilac and syringa bushes waved over the top of the high wall, must,
he thought, run back some way, and from the west windows there must
be a glorious sea-view.

The house looked both genteel and benevolent. The white stone steps
and window-sills and the white fan over the door gave a certain
effect of clean linen that was singularly pleasing. The young doctor,
unlike Doctor Johnson, had a passion for clean linen. The knocker,
too, was of the graceful long oval shape he liked, and burnished to
the last point of perfection, and the shining windows were so placed
as to give an air of cheerful interrogation to the whole.

"I like that house!" said the young doctor again. "Tell me about the
people!"

Again the old doctor laughed. "I tell you they are the Vestal Virgins!"
he repeated. "There are two of them, Miss Phoebe and Miss Vesta Blyth.