in lavender down the steps. This woman first kissed Eudora with
gentle fervor, then, with a sly look around and voice raised
intentionally high, she lifted the blue and white roll from the
carriage with the tenderest care. "Did the darling come to see
his aunties?" she shrilled.

The old man and the boy in the front yard heard her distinctly.
The old man's face was imperturbable. The boy grinned.

Two other women, all clad in lavender, appeared in the doorway.
They also bent over the blue and white bundle. They also said
something about the darling coming to see his aunties. Then
there ensued the softest chorus of lady-laughter, as if at some
hidden joke.

"Come in, Eudora dear," said Amelia Lancaster. "Yes, come in,
Eudora dear," said Anna Lancaster. "Yes, come in, Eudora dear,"
said Sophia Willing.

Sophia looked much older than her sisters, but with that
exception the resemblance between all three was startling. They
always dressed exactly alike, too, in silken fabric of bluish
lavender, like myrtle blossoms. Some of the poetical souls in the
village called the Lancaster sisters "The ladies in lavender."

There was an astonishing change in the treatment of the blue and
white bundle when the sisters and Eudora were in the stately old
sitting-room, with its heavy mahogany furniture and its
white-wainscoted calls. Amelia simply tossed the bundle into a
corner of the sofa; then the sisters all sat in a loving circle