LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 CALIFORNIA 
 
 SAN DIEGO

 
 A<-y.
 
 CHARLEY ROBERTS SERIES. 
 
 HOW EVA TtOBEHTS 
 
 GAINED HER EDUCATION. 
 
 BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR OF "FORREST MILLS"-A PRIZE STORY. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 TIS NOT THE WHOLE OF LIFE TO LIVE: 
 
 BOSTON: 
 A-INTD S H E !> A. R D. 
 
 1870.
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by 
 
 LEE AND SHEPARD, 
 In the Clerk s Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
 Electrotyped at the Boston Stereotype Foundry, 
 No. 19 Spring Lane.
 
 TO 
 
 ANNIE H. S ENTER 
 
 Sfeis f iiil* f&feetcfc of Citg fife 
 
 IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 
 BY THE AUTHOR.
 
 CHARLEY ROBERTS SERIES. 
 
 TO BE COMPLETED IN SIX VOLUMES. 
 
 1. HOW CEAELEY KOBEKTS BECAME A MAN, 
 
 2. HOW EVA EOBEETS GAINED HER EDUCATION, 
 
 3. HOME IN THE WEST. 
 
 (Others in preparation.)
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 WHILE so many are speaking and writing upon 
 woman, her work, her sphere, and the position 
 she ought to fill in life, I would go behind all 
 these later questions, and send forth a story for 
 the girls. I hope they will not find it uninter 
 esting, and I trust to the womanly good sense 
 which I have generally found in them, to receive 
 and understand the true meaning of this little 
 history.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CH4PTEB PAGH 
 
 I. ARRIVAL 11 
 
 II. AT SCHOOL 25 
 
 III. AT HOME 38 
 
 IV. SOPHY S POST OFFICE 50 
 
 V. DENOUEMENTS 67 
 
 
 
 VI. "Rfs PROSPECTS 81 
 
 VII. CONSIDERATIONS. 97 
 
 VIII. A TRIP TO CAMPFIELDS 112 
 
 IX. RETURN. 130 
 
 X. MINNIE TRUE 147 
 
 XI. NOLL AND EVA 164 
 
 XII. Ri AND SOPHY. 183 
 
 XIII. RESUMis .... 197 
 
 XIV. NOLL S WINTER 212 
 
 XV. CHARLEY s VISIT. 225 
 
 XVI. HOME IN THE WEST. ........ 238 
 
 (9)
 
 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ARRIVAL. 
 
 IT was four o clock of a sultry July afternoon. 
 Blazing sunshine burned down upon the hot and 
 dusty walls of New York. Express wagons, coaches, 
 drays, carriages, and the omnipresent bus thronged 
 the streets. Slowly aunt Matilda s showy carriage 
 wound its way among them, and from its window Eva 
 Roberts saw, with careless eyes, the busy city sights 
 that had once been so familiar. Everything seemed 
 new and strange to her. For the first time she realized 
 that she was to begin a life quite different from what 
 she had ever known before, and that, too, among com 
 parative strangers. 
 
 The carriage stood blocked before the steps of a 
 handsome hotel. In and out, to and fro, a busy crowd 
 was moving. A homesick feeling rose in Eva s heart 
 
 (ii)
 
 12 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 as she watched the unknown faces. Two young men 
 came up, and, turning, stopped a moment on the steps. 
 These were faces she had seen before. She could not 
 remember when or where, but the surprise was just as 
 pleasant, as she leaned forward to the window, with a 
 glad smile lighting up her pale little face. The elder, 
 and taller of the two observed her sudden interest. 
 He lifted his hat with one delicately-gloved hand, and 
 bowed with wonderful deference and grace. The car 
 riage moved on just in season to intercept Eva s half- 
 unconscious acknowledgment, and the two young men 
 turned into the hotel. 
 
 " Who was that ? " asked Dick Waters, as they 
 passed through the long corridors. 
 
 " I m sure I don t know," returned Mortimer Salsby, 
 with an easy laugh. " She seemed unfeignedly glad to 
 see me, and I endeavored to show my appreciation." 
 
 " Perhaps she would be glad to see you again. Why 
 didn t you send a boy to follow the carriage ? " 
 
 " Send boys yourself, if you want. That isn t my 
 way. I believe in fate. If I am to meet her again, I 
 suppose I shall ; if not, there is a good deal else in 
 the world, and I shall not suffer for amusement. Be 
 sides, I think I have seen the face somewhere before 
 to-day." 
 
 " The turnout is bran new." 
 
 Mortimer did not trouble himself to mention that he
 
 ARRIVAL. 13 
 
 very well knew the equipage as belonging to Mr. 
 Meredith, whose eldest daughter was to come out next 
 winter, and whose son often accepted the hospitality 
 of his rooms, as did Dick Waters. He only set out his 
 wine and cigars, and, inviting Dick to freedom there 
 with, settled himself for a good lounge and smoke, 
 after his forenoon ramble. 
 
 And Eva rode on, wondering, in a startled way, 
 where she had ever seen that handsome face before, 
 until, running over in her mind every one she could 
 remember in New York, she came to identify the 
 square-shoulders, black, curling hair, and glancing 
 black eyes of the other one, as her brother Charley s 
 jolly Dick Waters, of so many years ago. 
 
 The coach door was opened. Eva walked up a 
 flight of well-known steps, and entered the wide hall 
 of what had been her own mother s home. Aunt 
 Matilda had reached what had been for years her 
 ambition she lived in the same grand house that had 
 belonged to her brother Hermon s wife ; she kept 
 her carriage ; she gave and attended the most elegant 
 parties in all New York. Eva had no time to recover 
 from her astonishment, when down the long, wide stair 
 case sprang a girl of about her own age, calling, " Yes, 
 here she is ! " to some one above. " I m so glad you ve 
 come, Evvy! And ma says you are to room with 
 me. It is just as nice as having a new twin sister 
 isn t it?"
 
 14 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 "Thank you, dear Nolly," replied Eva, choking 
 back a strange rising in her throat. "How tall you 
 are ! " she added, looking up admiringly at the rather 
 overgrown and awkward figure of her cousin Hortense. 
 
 " O, yes, I am tall enough, if I were only beautiful 
 in proportion! Come up stairs now, and have some 
 rest. I ll help you dress for dinner." 
 
 " Eva, my sweet child ! " and aunt Matilda, whose 
 rustling robes, had swept down the stairs unobserved 
 by the girls, clasped the little orphan in her arms with 
 tragic tenderness. 
 
 " Come," said Hortense, standing on the first stair, 
 and pulling Eva s sleeve before aunt Matilda had 
 finished her greeting. Eva laid aside her travelling 
 dress, and rested upon a sofa ; and Hortense, or Noll, 
 as she was always called at home, chattered briskly at 
 her all the while. 
 
 "Bi and Sophy have the room next to this. They 
 keep up an everlasting talk when I am not there ; but if 
 I come, it dies off very suddenly. I do wonder what 
 they find to say so much. They never have anything 
 to tell me that is interesting. Brother Jack has the 
 front room next us. Do you remember him?" 
 
 " No. Was he at home when I used to come 
 here?" 
 
 " Perhaps not. He has been away for years at col 
 lege, and not half the time at home for vacations. He
 
 ARRIVAL. 15 
 
 is my boy ! Such a splendid fellow, with brown eyes 
 and blue hair, I mean the other way, and not an 
 atom of nonsense about him ! You must like him 
 at once, just for my sake, Evvy; indeed, you can t 
 help it." 
 
 Eva had seen but little of her cousins Meredith in 
 former years. She remembered Hortense as a good- 
 natured, noisy little girl, and Maria and Sophia as 
 patronizing elder sisters; but it was all so long ago, 
 and so many changes had intervened, that they seemed 
 quite like new acquaintances when she met them at 
 dinner. Maria was very pretty. There was a reddish 
 tinge in her curling hair that distinguished it as the 
 veritable auburn of poets and artists ; her eyes, of soft 
 brown, were shaded by long, dark lashes, that swept 
 delicately down upon her fair cheeks, and set off her 
 perfect complexion. Eva could scarcely keep her eyes 
 from her beautiful cousin s face. Sophy called her 
 own hair chestnut, as a companion color to her sister s 
 auburn ; and perhaps there was a suggestion of yellow 
 in its heavy coils. Sophy s eyes might be called blue, 
 gray, hazel, or green ; they were no particular color, 
 and resembled several, in different lights; they were 
 not very agreeable eyes to look into. Her complexion 
 had a provoking tendency to freckles, which were kept 
 in only partial subjection by certain washes and cos 
 metics. Her full lips had acquired an habitual con-
 
 16 EVA EOBEETS EDUCATION. 
 
 temptuous expression beneath her large, round, and 
 essentially plebeian nose. She made the very utmost 
 of her rich and abundant hair, and her pretty little, 
 plump, white hands. Beyond these she could boast no 
 beauty. Eva s earnest eyes came back from a covert 
 study of her cousin Sophy s face, with a sense of relief, 
 to Noll s frank blue eyes, and not over-smooth brown 
 hair. She liked Noll s good-natured smile and hearty 
 ways. Eva had been kindly received by uncle Mere 
 dith, a grave, elderly man, of preoccupied manner. 
 When they were half through dinner, the door was 
 opened by Jack. Noll sprang from her chair to seize 
 his hand, and exclaim, " This is Evvy, Jack ! " 
 
 " How noisy you are, Noll ! " murmured aunt Ma 
 tilda, languidly. 
 
 " And I want you to be the best of friends, because 
 she is to be my twin sister," continued Noll. 
 
 "A very rash assertion, I should say," coolly re 
 marked Sophy. 
 
 " Eva may not wish to be twin sister to such a 
 harum-scarum as you are," quietly suggested Mr. 
 Meredith. 
 
 " O, yes, I shall," said Eva, having exchanged greet 
 ing with cousin Jack. "I like Nolly very much. I 
 should be very lonely without her, now Charley is gone." 
 
 " Charley is older than you, I believe," said Maria. 
 
 " Yes ; four years older."
 
 AKEIVAL. 17 
 
 " Gone out west, I hear," said Jack. 
 
 " Uncle Martyn thought he would do better there 
 than in any place he could find for him here." 
 
 " The west is a grand place for a young man," re 
 plied Jack. " I am tempted to go there myself, 
 sometimes." 
 
 Eva s heart warmed up at once with these words. 
 They seemed to make Charley s absence more tolera 
 ble, and she liked Jack proportionally for saying them. 
 
 " O, Jack, don t whisper such a thing ! " exclaimed 
 Mrs. Meredith. "You know I couldn t live without 
 you. Your father will never go into society, and how 
 dreadful it would be for me to go without you ! " 
 
 " You have only had me this one season. Probably 
 you would find it as easy to go without me as before I 
 came home." 
 
 " You know, Jack, we did not move in society then, 
 as we do now. Society has more claims upon us since 
 we have changed our style of living." 
 
 Something in all this grated very unpleasantly on 
 Eva s remembrance of the time when her own father, 
 mother, and Charley had sat around the table in this 
 same room. Jack saw her pained little face bent 
 steadily over her plate, and resolutely winking back an 
 unusual mistiness in her eyes. 
 
 "When do you leave for Beryl Beach?" he asked, 
 abruptly. 
 
 2
 
 18 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 " One o clock, to-morrow," replied Sophy. " We 
 have waited over these two days, till Eva came, and 
 now we mean to be off." 
 
 "I am sorry my coming has detained you," said 
 Eva, quickly. "If I had known it, I would have 
 tried to be ready sooner." 
 
 " It is not of the Jeast consequence, dear child," 
 sweetly responded aunt Matilda. "The delay has been 
 very opportune to me for finishing some arrangements 
 I wished to make before leaving. But the girls have 
 been rather impatient." 
 
 " I didn t know you were keeping us at home for 
 your own convenience," snapped Sophy. " You said 
 it was on Eva s account." 
 
 "So it was, my dear; but, as I said, the delay did 
 not disturb me as it seems it did you. The girls are 
 very tired," she added, to Eva, "staying in the hot city 
 so long. They seem to be really suffering for fresh air 
 and freedom." 
 
 " Yes," interposed Noll, with comic face ; " they 
 never suffered so much in a whole summer, before, us 
 they have in the last two days!" 
 
 " The warm weather does not affect you any," said 
 Maria, laughing. 
 
 " I know I can t go ; so where is the use in my 
 suffering ? " 
 
 " The girls have never been to Beryl Beach, and
 
 ARRIVAL. 19 
 
 they are anticipating much pleasure," continued aunt 
 Matilda. 
 
 " None of us have ever been out of the city in sum 
 mer before," volunteered Noll. "That s what makes 
 their sufferings so funny." 
 
 Mrs. Meredith gave her a reproving glance, that 
 verged so near an angry blackness, that a faint sus 
 picion of the fixity of aunt Matilda s sweet temper 
 crossed Eva s mind. 
 
 " We thought," continued the interrupted lady, 
 "that as you are just come from a long sojourn in the 
 country, you would, perhaps, like as well to remain with 
 Noll ; for I really cannot take her with me. Two girls 
 are as many as I can watch over." 
 
 " I should prefer to stay here," said Eva, absently 
 smoothing the folds of crape upon her sleeve. 
 
 " Sure enough, dear child ; how thoughtful of you ! 
 Gay company is no place for you now, certainly. I 
 wonder if my girls would show as much proper and 
 becoming respect for my memory, if I were taken away 
 from them!" and aunt Matilda applied her delicate 
 handkerchief to her face, to hide her feelings. 
 
 la Eva s mind there had been no connection between 
 the simple words and unconscious motion. She looked 
 up quickly, while her surprise rapidly changed to in 
 dignation and grief. It was cruel to misunderstand her 
 so. The tears would come at this dreadful way of
 
 20 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 reviving and treating her bereavement. She slipped 
 from her chair, and hurried away. Mr. Meredith cast 
 a sharp glance at his wife, who was still in eclipse be 
 hind her handkerchief. 
 
 " Quite a lachrymose scene ! " sneered Sophy. 
 
 "Just like you, ma!" cried Noll, impatiently. 
 
 " Ah, my dears, you don t understand ; how should 
 you? I can sympathize with Eva s sorrow, for I, too, 
 have lost a mother." 
 
 Jack remembered his decrepit and almost idiotic 
 old grandmother Roberts, who died some ten years 
 before, and doubted if the loss were quite the same as 
 Eva s. Noll jogged his elbow, and whispered, " I m 
 going. Remember us when the dessert comes in." He 
 nodded, and Noll ran out of the room, while her 
 mother called, "Don t go near Eva, Noll ; let the dear 
 child have a few minutes alone. I am going up to 
 soothe and comfort her, when I have finished my 
 dinner." 
 
 But Noll went straight to her own room, and was a 
 good deal surprised that Eva was not there. She 
 looked into the parlors and library, and even Mrs. 
 Meredith s boudoir, that had once been Eva s mother s. 
 Where could she have gone? Of course Eva knew 
 every door in the house, and had sought some old and 
 favorite haunt. She remembered the old nursery in 
 the upper story. The large, low room had been fitted
 
 AKEIVAL. 21 
 
 up by Mrs. Meredith as a study for the girls, where they 
 pursued their lessons when not absent at the fashiona 
 ble school which they attended. A tinkling, second 
 hand piano stood where had been Eva s comfortable 
 lounge ; a stand of shelves, for books, took the place of 
 the old-fashioned easy-chair; an easel held a half-finished 
 landscape in oils, and another sustained a blackboard ; 
 there was only a straw matting upon the floor; the 
 table was littered with school books and papers ; and 
 the window-shades were closed. In the midst of these 
 gloomy surroundings, on a cricket, with her head upon 
 the seat of a stiff, wooden chair, was Eva, sobbing out 
 the sadness that had oppressed her ever since she bade 
 Charley good by at the station, and watched him as she 
 was driven away. 
 
 " Now, don t cry, Evvy," said Noll, dropping herself 
 plump upon the floor beside her. "What a guy you ll 
 make of yourself, sobbing and stifling in this way! It s 
 no use crying for things ; we never do here. Ma in 
 dulges in a mild snivel behind her laces, sometimes ; 
 but that s all for effect, and we sympathize accord 
 ingly. But, dear me ! such a terrible cry as this you re 
 having the old house hasn t seen since well, since 
 you went out of it, I should judge." So Noll, in her 
 effort at consolation, blundered right upon the worst 
 suggestion she could make. Eva thought of the day 
 after Mrs. True s party, when her mother came in upon
 
 22 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 Charley s entertaining stories with her sad news, and 
 then left Eva to sob out her frightened grief alone for 
 the first time. It seemed as if she had ceased being a 
 little girl on that clay. " Do stop, Evvy, dear ! You 
 make me feel so queer and uncomfortable ! and you ll 
 be as red in the face as if you had been boiled. Jack 
 hates to have folks round doing the mournful. Cattt 
 you stop, just for my sake, Evvy?" 
 
 Eva tried hard to quiet herself; but the sobs would 
 break out occasionally, as well as the tears. 
 
 "That s a dear good girl! It s just like ma -to get 
 up a scene. There! don t cry again. Now I ll tell 
 you something. Jack is going to bring our dessert up 
 here;" and she caught the bell-rope with an energetic 
 pull. "Jack is just the best fellow ! lie always re 
 members me when I am in disgrace." 
 
 "In disgrace?" 
 
 " O, I am always doing the improper thing, in one 
 way or another. You see I wasn t born to such hio-h 
 life as we ve got into lately, and it s very hard to have 
 the family change come just when I am at my awkward 
 age, neither a child nor a lady. Say to Mr. Jack, pri 
 vately," she broke off as a servant answered the bell 
 " that I am in the school-room. Jack says," she con 
 tinued, "that he should have found it just as hard at 
 my age, and he thanks his good fortune that he was 
 allowed to grow up first."
 
 AEPJVAL. . 23 
 
 "Found what just as hard? I don t quite under 
 stand." 
 
 "High life, of course. We have thing^very differ 
 ent here from what they were in our old house. Ma 
 and the girls take to it and like it wonderfully, and Jack 
 doesn t seem to mind it much; but pa finds it horribly 
 tedious, and I do so wish I could have a good run 
 with my skip-rope on the sidewalk! There were three 
 nice boys lived next door to us, and we used to have 
 capital times, playing together. But ma says it isn t 
 becoming for me to skip rope on this sidewalk, and she 
 sends us to school in the carriage half the time " 
 
 " Here you are ! " and Jack s pleasant face looked 
 in, followed by his entire self. " What do you suppose 
 we had for dessert?" and Jack, too^got down all his 
 long length upon the floor, to be sociable with the 
 girls. 
 
 " What did you have ? Come, out with it ! " 
 said Noll. 
 
 " Guess." 
 
 "I can t. Guess, Evvy." 
 
 Peaches ? " 
 
 " Right ! Here they are ; " and Jack produced from 
 his pocket a couple of beautiful peaches. 
 
 " Isn t this fine ! " cried Noll, opening her pocket 
 fruit-knife, and offering it tp Eva.
 
 24 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 " What made you seek these classic shades ? " asked 
 Jack, glancing about the uncomfortable room. 
 
 "Eva ran off here to hide from affectionate solici 
 tude, I suppose. I never come here in vacations. It 
 makes my back ache and my tympanums throb just to 
 look at that cracked old piano. I do hate fine arts of 
 all kinds!" 
 
 "Eva! my poor, dear little Eva!" said aunt Ma 
 tilda s sweet voice. 
 
 But what a scene for her sympathetic eyes, as she 
 pushed open the door! Eva still sat on her cricket, 
 with swollen eyes and reddened face ; but a smile had 
 come with Noll s last words, as she delayed a great, 
 juicy piece of peach half way to her mouth, to look 
 into Noll s strong, comic face, as she sat at her feet ; 
 and Jack lay stretched out beside them, watching the 
 two girls, with an idle laugh upon his face. 
 
 " O, you are doing very well ! " and aunt Matilda 
 beat a retreat.
 
 AT SCHOOL. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 AT SCHOOL. 
 
 , , VA liked the long, quiet summer days, in the great 
 
 empty house. Noll was always new and amusing. 
 Mr. Meredith had a large library, where they spent 
 many hours, reading all sorts of things in a whimsical 
 fashion. Noll was an inveterate reader, if she might 
 choose her own books; but she turned in disgust from 
 anything not to her taste, and preferred sitting idle, 
 and building air-castles, to reading what she did not 
 like. Mr. Meredith was always at home to dinner, and 
 sometimes Jack. Once, however, Mrs. Meredith visited 
 Beryl Beach for a few days, and Jack was there several 
 times during his mother s absence. 
 
 In September, just before the reopening of school, 
 the family returned. Eva quickly fell into the routine 
 of her school duties. She found Noll, though proverb 
 ially inattentive and careless, was yet considerably in 
 advance of herself. She at once determined to equal 
 Noll s proficiency in all their studies, and was soon
 
 26 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 rapidly gaining on her. Her uncle Meredith and Jack 
 had advised her regarding a course of study, and had 
 recommended only history and mathematics for the 
 first term ; afterwards, languages ; and later, the sci 
 ences, in place of mathematics ; music, to extend 
 throughout her schooling ; and drawing and painting, 
 to be undertaken whenever she might wish or find time 
 for them. Eva liked the order, it agreed so well with 
 what her uncle Martyn had enjoined concerning her 
 mode "of study. Maria was nearly eighteen, and had 
 finished her education with the close of the previous 
 term. Sophy was desolate without her, and vainly 
 strove to solace her loneliness with the companionship 
 of Anna Marston, the beauty of the school. At home 
 Maria spent her time in alternately reviewing her 
 music, French, and wardrobe, looking eagerly forward 
 to the first of December, when she was to make her 
 debut at her mother s grand party, given in honor of 
 her coming out. 
 
 " Isn t this nice ! " cried Noll, as the three girls 
 stepped from the door, on a clear, cool morning in 
 October. 
 
 "It s awfully cold!" grumbled Sophy, while Eva 
 looked up and smiled in the bright sunshine. 
 
 " It just wakes me right up," exclaimed Noll, walking 
 briskly on. 
 
 "Don t go hurrying along so, like a servant girl 
 going to market," replied Sophy.
 
 AT SCHOOL. 27 
 
 "No; I ll hurry just like a school-girl going to her 
 cemetery," laughed Noll, and turning herself sidewise, 
 she skipped along with her arms folded tightly over 
 her books and lunch-box, and her jaunty little hat 
 nodding in tune to the motions of her rosy little pug 
 nose and dancing eyes and feet. 
 
 "I do wish,you wouldn t act so, Noll," said Sophy, 
 drawing her veil a little closer, to avoid any such 
 damaging color as Noll s face portrayed. "You always 
 make me ashamed of you." 
 
 " So do you," hummed Noll, as she skipped on. 
 
 " I don t see why you can t walk quietly along, like 
 Eva, in a lady-like manner." 
 
 Noll waited till they ca/ne up with her, and then 
 wheeled suddenly into rank by Eva s side, saying, 
 "How do you manage it, Evvy?" 
 
 " Manage what ? " 
 
 " Being always lady-like." 
 
 " I m sure I don t know. I certainly never try to be 
 lady-like." 
 
 " I suppose you were born to it." 
 
 " It s a great pity you weren t," retorted Sophy, " for 
 I m afraid you will never be able to acquire it." 
 
 " Yes, she will," said Eva, quickly, " because she is 
 generous and good-natured ; and mother always said 
 that the root of politeness is kindness." 
 
 " There ! I ll remember that of you, Evvy ! " ex 
 claimed Noll, with a grateful look.
 
 28 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 " Of course you ll remember a compliment," was 
 Sophy s sneering observation. 
 
 " Any one would who found them as scarce as I do," 
 angrily returned Noll. " And that s why your memory 
 is so much better for them than for geometry." 
 
 They had reached their school. The door was 
 opened to them, and they entered and separated with 
 no further talk. But Sophy s fault-finding rankled 
 unusually in Noll s heart perhaps because Eva s 
 defence had made her feel more thoroughly its injus 
 tice. A large room on the second floor was fitted 
 with desks for the whole school, and this room was 
 presided over by Miss Haliburton, the youngest and 
 most popular of the teachers. In other parts of the 
 building were recitation-rooms, occupied by Madame 
 Vanrie, the principal, the teacher of languages, the 
 little Swedish music-master, and the artist who taught 
 drawing, and painting in oils, and in all the various 
 fancy styles of achieving passable pictures without 
 much labor or taste. 
 
 " Look out for yourself to-day," said Kate Corning, 
 as Noll was following Eva out of the cloak-room. 
 
 " What now ? " asked Noll, turning back. 
 
 " La Pompadour is out ; that s all." , 
 
 "Dear me, what s that? " exclaimed Eva, half way 
 up the stairs, as her foot struck a soft substance that 
 went rolling over and over to the bottom. There it
 
 AT SCHOOL. 29 
 
 picked itself up into the form of a white, woolly poodle, 
 and gave voice in a low whine, increasing to an en 
 raged bark at the end. 
 
 " There s music a brewing," said Noll. 
 
 " That s the opening chord," replied Kate. 
 
 " It s too bad, Pompadour ; it was all an accident," 
 Sophy was saying, as she tried to caress the snappish 
 canine. Miss Haliburton came quickly from the school 
 room above. La Pompadour was Madame Vanrie s 
 weak point, and just there she was very weak. 
 
 "I ll take care of her," said Miss Haliburton, quietly. 
 But La Pompadour declined being taken up in her 
 careful hands. She gently pushed the poodle along 
 the floor toward a little private room. La Pompadour 
 had an unmistakable limp. Eva had murmured "I m 
 sorry," and hurried on to look out some references in 
 the library, before the stroke of the bell. 
 
 " Somebody s disgraced," remarked a tall, sandy- 
 faced girl in black. 
 
 " Thank your stars it isn t you," said Noll, at her 
 elbow. 
 
 " O, I suppose it is you^ then ; you are so quick to 
 take it up." 
 
 Noll passed on toward the school-room ; but a new 
 idea was suggested to her mind by Susan Smith s last 
 words. Madame Vanrie s pet had been alternately 
 teased and caressed by the scholars until its temper
 
 30 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 was completely spoiled, and also that of its mistress, 
 on this subject. After an unusually stormy dog-diffi 
 culty of the previous term, Madame had announced that 
 she should report to the parents, for unlady-like con 
 duct, any one of her pupils who in any way meddled 
 with her dog in future. She had also commenced, with 
 this term, the far wiser tactics of keeping the dog out 
 of the girls way, and this was the first time of La 
 Pompadour s appearance. No wonder Eva was star 
 tled at running over her on the stairs, and, knowing 
 nothing of the animal s status in Madame Vanrie s 
 affections, and the previous difficulties, no wonder she 
 went on in her accustomed way, without heeding the 
 looks of interest and commiseration showered upon 
 her as she took her seat at the opening of the school 
 session. But Noll was uneasy and anxious. Of course 
 it was an accident, and Eva was not in the least to 
 blame ; but an accident was in itself unlady-like, sui 
 generis, and an accident that brought woe to La 
 Pompadour became thereby criminal in the code of 
 Madame Vanrie s school. "Reported for unlady-like 
 behavior," meant assigned to a seat next Miss Hali- 
 burton s desk, and facing the whole school, for as long 
 a period as Madame Vanrie might deem appropriate ; 
 and how could Eva bear to be placed in disgrace 
 before these fifty girls, nearly all of whom were still 
 strangers to her? Noll could not allow it yet how 
 should she help it ?
 
 AT SCHOOL. 31 
 
 Just before the noonday intermission, Madame 
 Vanrie entered the school-room, where the girls were 
 assembled in their chairs. 
 
 " The young lady guilty of improper conduct this 
 morning may rise," said the icily polished tones of the 
 principal. 
 
 Many eyes turned toward Eva. She sat looking 
 innocently into Madame s face, quite unconscious that 
 she was the offender. Noll saw ; yes, she could do it. 
 And Noll rose. 
 
 Madame Vanrie bowed. " As I supposed," she said. 
 " The rest may pass out." 
 
 One after another the girls filed out, and Noll stood 
 alone before Madame and Miss Haliburton. 
 
 " I thought it was Miss Sophy who had accidentally 
 vexed the dog," said Miss Haliburton. 
 
 " What was the nature of this difficulty, Miss Hor- 
 tense ?" asked Madame, with dignity. 
 
 " The dog was on the stairs, and I didn t know it." 
 
 "And what happened? I find she is quite lame." 
 
 " She rolled down to the foot." 
 
 " Am I to understand that you struck La Pompadour 
 with your foot?" exclaimed Madame, aghast at such a 
 possibility. 
 
 " Not intentionally, of course." 
 
 "It shows an extreme want of care and gentleness 
 on. your part. You may remove your books to this
 
 32 EVA EOBEETS EDUCATION. 
 
 vacant desk by the chair for the present. I shall take 
 occasion to notify your parents that I consider your 
 conduct quite extraordinary in rudeness and careless 
 ness." Madame Vanrie swept away to her own rooms, 
 and Noll dumped her books in a heap upon the 
 appointed desk, and went to join the other girls. 
 
 If Eva had not been a stranger and so shy that she 
 spent her noonings alone in the library, nibbling her 
 lunch, while she pored over her books, she could not 
 have failed to hear the cause of Noll s disgrace, and 
 received the fate that belonged to herself. But in her 
 shyness and strangerhood she felt little inclination to 
 join the groups of girls that gathered in cliques at each 
 recess and intermission, and paid no attention to the 
 chatter in the halls and adjoining rooms. 
 
 " I didn t know you were in that scrape, said Sophy, 
 as Noll entered the cloak-room, after receiving sen 
 tence. " I might have known you would be doing 
 something dreadful to-day, you acted so on the way 
 to school." 
 
 " Noll, you didn t touch that dog ! " cried Kate 
 Corning ; " you were with me, and nowhere near 
 her." 
 
 "You don t know anything about it; so justhold 
 your tongue can t you?" ungraciously replied Noll, 
 over a big bite of Washington pie. 
 
 " Hope you are ill-natured enough. Madame s soci 
 ety s jftms to have soured your disposition."
 
 AT SCHOOL. 33 
 
 " Eva Roberts kicked Pompadour down stairs. I 
 saw her do it ! " cried a little girl, proud of giving 
 information to her elders. 
 
 " Shut up ! Where s the use telling all you know ? " 
 said Noll, a little less savage, because it was a little girl. 
 
 " Why ? Did you do it on purpose to save Eva ? " 
 inquired the little girl, confidentially, in a tone just 
 loud enough for all the surrounding girls to hear. 
 
 " Have a bite of my pie, dear, and let it stop your 
 mouth," said Noll, offering the wedge of rich pie, and 
 laughing good-naturedly, at last. 
 
 " Noll Meredith, you re a trump ! " said Kate Cor 
 ning. " Your little cousin Eva would have been 
 frightened to death, and grieved into purgatory, if she 
 had to sit out there and take Madaiue s reprimand and 
 lecture on manners." 
 
 " The lecture is yet to come. It will probably be a 
 public one, when school begins again. I was in debt 
 to Eva, and this will help square accounts." 
 
 " What is this, Noll ? " exclaimed Sophy, excitedly, 
 coming up with the mate to Noll s piece of pie in 
 process of absorption. " I m not going to have you 
 answering for Eva s sins. I m sure you have enough 
 of your own ; and it s bad enough as it is, without 
 your disgracing the family any further." 
 
 " What are you trying to say ? " asked Noll, looking 
 up with a blank face. 
 3
 
 34 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 " If Eva kicked Pompadour doVn stairs, she may 
 answer for it. I am not going to have you any more 
 disgraced than you must be. And I m going right off 
 to find Eva, and ask her if she did it." 
 
 "No, you are not!" cried Noll, with flashing eyes. 
 " If you stir a step, or say a word to Eva, I ll report 
 you for eating peanuts when Mr. Finn lectured on 
 harmony." 
 
 "Who says that ever I did such a thing?" angrily 
 exclaimed Sophy, who had a most plebeian fondness for 
 peanuts. 
 
 " Kate Corning and I saw you," retorted Noll. 
 
 " Well, report away ; who cares ? " said Sophy, con 
 temptuously, moving toward the door. 
 
 Noll was boiling with rage and apprehension. It 
 was so mean and ugly of Sophy ! and she couldiHt 
 have her little scheme exposed. She sprang from her 
 seat, flew across the cloak-room, caught Sophy by the 
 shoulder, and whispered, " If you do, I ll expose your 
 post office, every bit of it, to father." 
 
 Sophy paled. Her eyes turned green with jealous 
 vexation. She had in her heart rather rejoiced to 
 catch Eva in remissness ; for Eva s scholarship and 
 deportment ranked highest of the three girls. But the 
 post office the great joy of her life, and all that made 
 it worth living Sophy stopped short. 
 
 " Will you let my affairs alone ? " asked Noll, tri 
 umphantly.
 
 AT SCHOOL. 35 
 
 " Yes, if you ll let mine alone." 
 
 " Agreed," grimly replied Noll, and returned to her 
 lunch. 
 
 Madame delivered a short, high-flown, and misty 
 lecture on the highly immoral character of rudeness, 
 carelessness, and bad manners in general, using Noll, in 
 her seat of disgrace, as an example of all these. But 
 the story had spread, and Noll saw more sympathy and 
 admiration than aversion in the familiar faces of her 
 schoolmates. 
 
 "What had you done this morning, Noll?" asked 
 Eva, as they walked homeward. 
 
 " Don t expect me to rehearse my sins of behavior 
 into your lady-like ears, Evvy, dear. I should hate to 
 shock you." 
 
 "I shan t be shocked. But you needn t tell me if 
 you don t want to. Where is Sophy?" 
 
 Sophy had slipped behind and disappeared down a 
 by street, with a delicately written note in one hand 
 and a tiny key in the other. She now rejoined them 
 a, little, out of breath. 
 
 " I couldn t imagine where you had vanished," said 
 Eva. 
 
 " I ran a few steps down that street to look at a 
 pretty baby in the window," explained Sophy. 
 
 " O, I wish I had seen it, too ! " 
 
 " Perhaps you will, some day," laughed Noll.
 
 36 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 That evening Noll went straight into the library, 
 where Mr. Meredith sat alone. 
 
 " Father, I ve got something to tell you." 
 
 " Well, what is it ? " he replied, kindly, laying aside 
 his book. When Noll came to speak, he was sure she 
 had something worth telling; and he did not feel that 
 pleasant certainty about any other members of his 
 family. 
 
 Noll informed him that Madame Vanrie s disgusting 
 little poodle got kicked down stairs, to-day, by acci 
 dent, and she was in the depth of disgrace on that 
 account. Notice would be sent, to-morrow, to Mr. and 
 Mrs. Meredith, of her general bad conduct ; but she 
 assured him there was no other cause for complaint 
 against her; and would he please to hush the matter 
 up with mother, and not let it be mentioned in the 
 family ; for she did not want her disgrace any wider 
 spi ead than was necessary ; and she particularly did 
 not wish Eva to know of it. 
 
 " So Eva is really making you ashamed of yourself ? w 
 he said. 
 
 " O, yes, she often does." 
 
 " That s a hopeful sign. I hope you will some time 
 learn to be lady-like, in the same way that Eva is, and 
 not with sham politeness." 
 
 "I ll learn her kind of behavior, if I do any," said 
 Noll, sadly ; " but I am afraid I shall never be able
 
 AT SCHOOL. 37 
 
 to learn any, but just act my own queer ways, 
 forever." 
 
 Having made an ally of her father, Noll feared no 
 farther evil, and banished the dog troubles from her 
 mind. But the reign of the dog-star was not yet 
 over.
 
 38 EVA KOBEKTS EDUCATION. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 AT HOME. 
 
 "JVTEXT day Noll was speckled all over with 
 -L i measles, and could not go to school. Every 
 one else in the house had entertained these visitors at 
 some long previous era, and as she was not very sick, 
 Noll s measles were regarded as a welcome, and, to 
 Noll, very opportune joke. Madame Vanrie s report 
 received little attention, Noll, at the time, suffering 
 with severe headache. La Pompadour no more in 
 vaded the school precincts. 
 
 It was a cold, rainy, dismal evening. Mrs. Meredith 
 had gone out with Jack. The girls were grouped 
 before the cheerful open grate of coals in the dining- 
 room. Ri was pricking dainty stitches in a .delicate 
 bit of muslin. Sophy glowered and grew sour over 
 her geometry. Noll was idly stretched on a lounge, 
 wheeled here for her special accommodation. Eva was 
 tying wild knots in a thread with a shuttle, under Ri s 
 guidance, in the bewildering effort to learn tatting.
 
 AT HOME. 39 
 
 " You must hold your thread in your thumb and 
 finger so tight that it can t slip," said Ri, pinching 
 together Eva s lax finger and thumb. 
 
 " What little fingers you have ! " said Sophy, watch 
 ing the tatting over her geometry. 
 
 "And what stupid ones!" added Eva. 
 
 " There, now draw the shuttle thread firmly, and 
 then the other one makes the knot, you see," con 
 tinued Ri. 
 
 " Yes ; now, if I can only do it again ! " sighed the 
 patient scholar. 
 
 "This geometry is perfectly hateful!" exclaimed 
 Sophy. 
 
 "Ain t I glad folks with measles can t use their 
 eyes ? " yawned Noll. 
 
 "I thought you were lamenting that very thing this 
 morning," said Ri, " when I brought home St. Elmo, 
 and you wanted to read it." 
 
 " O, yes ; but it s an ill wind that blows no good ; 
 and I m just getting the good of this one. If it wasn t 
 for my eyes, father would be advising my keeping 
 along with the class in my studies at home ; because 
 I m not sick enough to hinder." 
 
 " I didn t know you were so lazy, Noll," said Eva. 
 
 " Do you call it lazy ? I thought it was just taking 
 comfort." 
 
 " Do you think Madame will give you your old seat, 
 when you go back?" asked Ri.
 
 40 EVA .ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 " That depends very much upon how she happens to 
 feel, I suppose," replied Noll. 
 
 "Probably more on how grave the offence was," 
 said Eva. "You know I don t know yet what it was." 
 
 " She only kicked Madame s poodle down stairs, by 
 accident," said Ri. 
 
 Noll. held her breath. Eva looked up in the wildest 
 astonishment. 
 
 " No, she didn t ! I did it myself," cried Eva, 
 stoutly. 
 
 " You must be mistaken," laughed Ri. 
 
 " Noll, is that really what you were disgraced for ? " 
 asked Eva, anxiously. 
 
 " No," said Noll. 
 
 " Now, Noll, that s a lie ! " broke out Sophy. 
 
 " Post office," said Noll. 
 
 " You know I didn t mean it," yielded Sophy. 
 
 " What does it all mean ? " asked Eva, growing more 
 and more puzzled and distressed. 
 
 "We were .talking Meredith Greek, which you 
 weren t born to, and haven t yet learned," replied Noll, 
 good-humoredly. 
 
 " But, Noll, tell me one thing ; " and Eva freed her 
 little fingers from the tangled tatting, and laid it on 
 the table, then went and knelt beside Noll s lounge. 
 " What were you disgraced for ? " 
 
 " For general bad behavior."
 
 AT HOME. 41 
 
 " Bat there was something special that morning, for 
 Madame said as much in her lecture." 
 
 "What is it, Eva?" asked Mr. Meredith, who had 
 come through the hall, from the library, and entered 
 unobserved. 
 
 "O, uncle Meredith, Ri says Noll was disgraced 
 for kicking Pompadour down stairs ; and it was I who 
 kicked Pompadour down stairs." 
 
 Mr. Meredith sat upon the edge of Noll s lounge, 
 and took a hand of both girls, while a smile of hearty 
 amusement lighted up his face. 
 
 " Well, then, what is to be done ? " he said. 
 
 " Noll won t own it." 
 
 " I m a complete pauper in such matters wouldn t 
 own even my name in them, if I could help it," said 
 Noll. 
 
 " I shall go to Madame Vanrie to-morrow," said Eva, 
 " and tell her that I " 
 
 " No, you won t, if you love me ! " pathetically inter 
 posed Noll. 
 
 " It s a mean kind of love that would let you be 
 punished in my stead," valiantly retorted Eva. 
 
 " I see I must settle this matter," said Mr. Meredith. 
 "You pushed the dog down stairs did you, Eva? 
 By accident, of coui-se." 
 
 "Yes, sir. I ought to have spoken of it, and told 
 Madame how sorry I was that it happened."
 
 42 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 " And then what did you do, Noll ? " 
 
 " I laughed, and called it a good joke, at first." 
 
 "And when Mad^ne called upon the young lady 
 guilty of improper conduct that morning to rise, it 
 never entered my head she meant me," said Eva. 
 
 " I knew such a call always covered my case exactly, 
 and so I rose," added Noll. 
 
 "And got punished for the dog accident," said her 
 father, laughing. 
 
 " Yes. What harm ? I really did resolve to be 
 lady-like in future," said Noll, earnestly. 
 
 Sophy had grown studious over her geometry. Ri 
 had dropped her work to listen. 
 
 " I will call on Madame Vanrie to-morrow, and have 
 your sentence repealed," said the father. 
 
 " And I will go and confess," said Eva. 
 
 " Now, father," cried Noll, catching Mr. Meredith s 
 sleeve, "if you want to make yourself really useful, 
 and be a dear good father," she added, patting his 
 hand, as he resumed his seat, " never mind Madame, 
 but use your influence and authority in the far worthier 
 employment of convincing this stark little piece of 
 honor, that there s no occasion for her making a martyr 
 of herself, by acquiring my unenviable position next 
 Miss Haliburton s desk." 
 
 " Not even uncle Meredith could do that," said Eva. 
 "Why, just think, Noll, what a miserable little coward
 
 AT HOME. 43 
 
 you have made me out! I shall be ashamed to look a 
 girl in the face, till I expiate." 
 
 " No such thing ! They all know that you were in 
 blissful ignorance of the stringent Pompadour rules. 
 And they know, too, that you were equally ignorant of 
 the cause of my little change of position." 
 
 Jack and Mrs. Meredith at this moment returned 
 from the opera. The lady sank languidly in the large 
 easy-chair that Eva rolled before the grate for her, and 
 said, as she slowly drew off her delicate lemon colored 
 kids, and threw back her velvet mantle, 
 
 "What disgusting weather! Ri, take my bonnet, 
 and don t jam the flowers. Why didn t the other girls 
 go to bed before this time ? Sophy, don t worry any 
 more over your lessons, if you don t have them." 
 
 "Was it very fine?" asked Ri, extemporizing a 
 bonnet-rack by setting the duster upright against a 
 chair, steadied by a cricket, on its feathers, and hang 
 ing the dainty and gay little bonnet on the tip of the 
 handle. 
 
 "The acting was very good. Jack thought the 
 music harsh, in some parts. Mr. Salsby said it was 
 not well adapted throughout. You will meet Mr. 
 Salsby, dear, when you come out." 
 
 "Who is he?" 
 
 " A very fine young man wealthy, accomplished, 
 travelled, handsome he moves in the first circles."
 
 44 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 " And sprang directly from original chaos, I suppose," 
 said Mr. Meredith. 
 
 " What an idea, "William ! He seems to be entirely 
 upon his own responsibility and resources. What do 
 you know of him, Jack ? " 
 
 " I think he is a good fellow. He has tip-top rooms 
 
 at the K Hotel. Had a disagreement with his 
 
 father, who, he says, lives somewhere in the state ; and 
 then a large fortune was left him, and he became inde 
 pendent. Mortimer is a fine fellow honorable and 
 I think likely the father was in the wrong of it. But 
 he keeps very whist about the affair." 
 
 " Ten to one the old man was only prudent and 
 sensible, while the young one was wild and reckless," 
 said Mr. Meredith. 
 
 " O, uncle, I know his father did wrong ! " exclaimed 
 Eva, quickly and earnestly. 
 
 " Whew ! " said Jack, turning to face her. 
 
 Eva colored, and- hid her face in her hands, while 
 everybody laughed, except Jack, who was sorry for his 
 rudeness. 
 
 "You saw this young hero to-night, I suppose," 
 said Noll, as the laugh subsided. 
 
 "Yes, Jack had offered him a seat in our box," 
 replied her mother. 
 
 "Jack will play the agreeable to him till Hi comes 
 out and relieves him ? " said Sophy, sagely.
 
 AT HOME. 45 
 
 " Come ; it is time all you girls were in bed. Scat 
 ter ! " said Mrs. Meredith, gayly shaking her gloves at 
 them. 
 
 "Evvy, what made you break out so about that 
 Mortimer Salsby ? " asked Noll, when she and Eva 
 were together in their own room. "Do you know 
 him ? " 
 
 "Yes no that is I have only seen him pass in 
 the street ; but Charley knew him." 
 
 " Here in the city, or at Campfields ? " 
 
 " I don t know whether I ought to tell what I know, 
 if he wants to keep his family affairs a secret." 
 
 " Tell me, and we will know it together. They say 
 it takes two to keep a secret, and I ll help you keep 
 this. We won t tell the rest." 
 
 Eva was over-persuaded. The two girls nestled their 
 heads comfortably in their pillow?, while Eva related 
 all that Charley had told her of the robbery at Camp- 
 fields, and old Mr. Salsby s connection with it. But she 
 said nothing about Mr. Salsby s transactions with her 
 own father, and the trouble and sorrow he had caused 
 the family. The clocks had struck twelve long before 
 the tale was ended. When, at last, Eva finished, Noll 
 poked up her head from the pillow, in a listening atti 
 tude. 
 
 " I declare, those girls are talking yet," she exclaimed. 
 "Now I will know; " and she sprang out of bed, ran to 
 the dividing wall, and was quiet.
 
 46 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION . 
 
 "Noll, what are you doing?" 
 
 " Listening ; hush ! " 
 
 Eva meant to have remonstrated further ; but she 
 was very tired, and suddenly fell asleep, as she was 
 thinking what was the best tiling to say to Noll. 
 There was a fine hole through the thick partition, in 
 which was inserted a quill that reached from side to 
 side of the wall. It was concealed on the other side, 
 and had a movable stopper on this all the work of 
 the indefatigable Noll. The head of her sisters bed 
 came just under this acoustic tube. It grew cold, and 
 Noll pulled on a warm dressing-gown, tucked her feet 
 into slippers, moved up a chair, and made herself com 
 fortable beside her Dionysius ear. Noll didn t mean 
 to be dishonorable. Her sisters had always indulged 
 in a great many nice plans and private delights, from 
 which she had been continually excluded. She 
 thought it only her right to steal a march on their 
 wonderful secrets, if she could. And this is what she 
 heard. 
 
 "It s such a pity you couldn t manage it with the 
 school hours," said Ri, sympathizingly. 
 
 " I ve told you that I can t. He says it must be ill 
 the evening," Sophy replied, fractiously. 
 
 " I don t like that. I should be afraid." 
 
 "Afraid of what? You will only go as companion. 
 I should think I was the one to be afraid."
 
 AT HOME. 47 
 
 Noll thought so, too. 
 
 " One of us might feel ill, and go to bed early, some 
 night," suggested Ri, at last. 
 
 " And have ma popping in every half hour, to see if 
 we are better." 
 
 "Take some evening when ma is out." 
 
 " But we can t both be sick, unless we have the 
 measles," said Sophy, with a laugh. 
 
 "The other might come and be nurse, and so pre 
 vent any one else from interfering." 
 
 " I wonder if we could work it in that way," medi 
 tated Sophy. 
 
 "No, you can t/" whispered Noll, behind the wall, 
 wagging her head emphatically. "I ll not have my 
 sisters disgrace themselves in any such way." 
 
 " Somehow, I feel afraid about trusting him," said 
 Ri, half sorry that she had suggested what seemed a 
 possible way of accomplishing the purpose. 
 
 "Ho! I d trust him, fast enough. Don t you know 
 how horribly in love he is ? and ma always says when 
 a young man is in love, he will do anything a girl 
 says." 
 
 Noll shut her teeth with a sharp click. " Ma didn t 
 suppose any of her girls would be fools enough to 
 believe it, literally," she thought. 
 
 " It s dreadfully late. We must go to sleep," said 
 Ri. " I ll think about it some more, to-morrow."
 
 48 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 " So will I," said Noll, as she threw aside her gown 
 and crept back to her place beside Eva. But it was a 
 long time before she could sleep. Her eyelids seemed 
 to open with an obstinate spring. Little chills rippled 
 over her, alternating with burning heats. Strange 
 fancies danced through her head, of secret post offices, 
 prisons, dark lanterns, robberies, criminals held by stout 
 policemen, two girls, cloaked and veiled, creeping out 
 at a side door, on a dark night, La Pompadour coming 
 to meet them upon the sidewalk, and lifting an elegant 
 hat to bow, when one of the girls kicked her into 
 the gutter, and Madame Vanrie rushed up to defend 
 her pet, and three policemen appeared, with clubs, but 
 they suddenly turned into horses, and began to prance 
 and trample on Noll ; and she awoke with a scream 
 that startled Eva to the other side of the room, and 
 brought Jack and Ri to the door. 
 
 Noll was tossing, groaning, and talking incoherently. 
 Eva stood shivering in the gown she had caught up, 
 pale with fright. The scene recalled her father s terri 
 ble sufferings. Mrs. Meredith was roused, and the 
 doctor called. "Miss Hortense had taken cold, and 
 the measles had turned inward," he said. His pre 
 scription soon quieted her delirium. Eva dressed and 
 passed the remaining hours till morning at Noll s 
 bedside, where Mrs. Meredith was soon persuaded to 
 give place to her, and return to finish out her own 
 interrupted night s rest.
 
 AT HOME. 49 
 
 Mr. Meredith called upon Madame Vanrie, on his 
 way to business, that day. Madame was ill, and unable 
 to see any one. Miss Haliburton attended to all busi 
 ness calls to-day. Eva looked in vain for Madame 
 Vanrie in the rooms she usually occupied, that morning, 
 haunting them, with fluttering heart, to make her late 
 confession. After devotions, Miss Haliburton stated 
 to the school that the accident to La Pompadour, of 
 n week past, had been explained more fully. Miss 
 JIortense Meredith was not concerned in it, and only 
 answered to the charge for private reasons of her own. 
 The injury was inflicted by a scholar who had never 
 seen La Pompadour before, knew nothing of the rules 
 made for her protection, and therefore was quite igno 
 rant of her own offence. Under these circumstances, 
 Miss Ilaliburton, in lieu of Madame Vanrie, who was 
 detained from school to-day by illness, pronounced the 
 matter satisfactorily ended. Miss Hortense would 
 resume her old seat on her return. 
 
 Of course the scholars talked it all over at recess, 
 and of course Eva made her dreaded confession to 
 Miss Ilaliburton, who already knew all about it, instead 
 of to Madame Vanrie. And so the reign of the dog- 
 star ended. 
 
 4
 
 50 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 SOPHY S POST OFFICE. 
 
 NOLL S illness was a great inconvenience to 
 Sophy in one respect. It interfered with her 
 regular attendance upon her post office. During the 
 first week she contrived little excuses for going out on 
 a short and lonely walk after her return from school. 
 Then the weather changed, and became so disagreea 
 ble that the pleasure of being out could no longer be 
 urged to account for her absence. Much of the time 
 it was so stormy that Mrs. Meredith ordered out the 
 carriage for them to ride to school. All these things 
 sadly disturbed Sophy s plans. She and the beautiful 
 young man, who lived only a step off her route to and 
 from school, and who had arranged a charming and 
 romantic little post-box, half hid by an althea bush, 
 and fitted with a lock to which he and Sophy had 
 keys, at one time only exchanged letters once in a 
 whole week ! Such was the adversity of fate and the 
 weather. This young man s acquaintance, too, had
 
 SOPHY S POST OFFICE. 51 
 
 been made in the most romantic manner. To be sure, 
 it was with Ri, at first; but then it had afterwards 
 fallen to Sophy, because Ri was afraid to continue it. 
 This was the way of it: One fine sunny morning last 
 spring, as the girls were on their way to school, Ri, 
 who had lost one glove, and was dallying with her 
 fingers, snapped off her handsomest ring, and it was no 
 where to be found. They searched the sidewalk far 
 and wide, and even the street, but the ring seemed to 
 have vanished from the face of the earth. While they 
 were hunting for it, and Ri could hardly keep from 
 crying with grief, a stranger approached. He half 
 stopped as he observed their search, cast a few admir 
 ing glances at Ri, and then, profoundly lifting his hat 
 from his curling black hair, he respectfully inquired if 
 she had met with a loss. Ri replied at once that she 
 had lost her prettiest ring: it flew off and disappeared. 
 The young man glanced at the smooth sidewalk, 
 stepped to the curb-stone, and took a sharp look along 
 the gutter with his keen black eyes, and at once brought 
 up the missing ornament from the sweepings of the 
 street. " O, thank you!" Ri exclaimed, while. he care 
 fully wiped it with his pocket handkerchief. " I am 
 very happy that my good eyesight should have been 
 of any service to you," he said, as with another pro 
 found bow he wished her good morning. 
 
 " O, Ri, wasn t that romantic!" Sophy exclaimed, as 
 soon as he was out of hearing.
 
 52 EVA KOBEKTS EDUCATION. 
 
 "I don t know was it?" returned RL "I m so 
 glad my ring is found ! " 
 
 The next morning the stranger met them again, 
 covertly Avatching for notice, till Ri bestowed a pleas 
 ant smile of recognition, when again up went the hat, 
 and light broke over his whole face, in a manner emi 
 nently complimentary. In this way he continued to 
 meet them for many mornings. Indeed, it was only 
 going down to business a half hour earlier than had 
 been his previous habit. One morning he overtook 
 and joined them, saying that he had started unusually 
 early, but was obliged to go back for something he 
 had forgotten, exemplifying the proverb that haste 
 makes waste. Afterward he so often overtook them 
 on their way home that it was clearly apparent he did 
 not do it unintentionally. Sophy thought it charm 
 ingly romantic and exciting. But Ri did not quite 
 like it, and Noll pronounced it awfully foolish. The 
 stranger s attention was all paid to Ri, and Noll de 
 clared he made woe-begone eyes and looked dreadfully 
 silly. Ri kept persistently beside Noll, instead of 
 allowing him to draw her behind to walk with him, as 
 he had once or twice done at first. The result was, 
 that Sophy began to drop behind to walk with the 
 handsome stranger. Ri felt that all these things were 
 not quite right, but she did not know how to stop them, 
 and did not Wish to be rude to the gentleman who had
 
 SOPHY S POST OFFICE. 53 
 
 rendered her a service. The idea of telling her mother 
 never presented itself to her, nor to either of her 
 sisters. Sophy proved much more affable with the 
 new acquaintance than Ri. She told him that this was 
 Ri s last term at school ; that Ri would be eighteen on 
 the 20th of November, and was coming out as soon as 
 the season opened ; that Noll was dreadfully unlady 
 like, and troubled her sisters very much thereby ; and 
 that she herself hated geometry, and Madame Vanrie s 
 school altogether, and wished she might come out with 
 Ri. In return the young man confided these thrilling 
 items : His name was Richard Waters ; he lived at the 
 third door upon F. Street; he had business down 
 town ; his father was dead, and though he lived with 
 his mother, he did as he pleased ; he would fix a little 
 post-box in the althea bush by the corner of his 
 mother s fence, if she would correspond with him 
 through it. So one day, soon afterward, he brought 
 her the key, and took her down F. Street, to show her 
 just where the post-box was placed, and how it was 
 opened. Sophy grew rapturous about her lover, as she 
 now called him. But though he maintained intimacy 
 only with Sophy, he still kept his profound bows, 
 brightened face, and wonderful eyes, only for Ri. All 
 through the long summer vacation the correspondence 
 had been sedulously carried on, and the secret acquaint 
 ance continued. Now, they no longer met on the way
 
 54 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 to and from school, but by appointment. "Do not 
 come alone to meet me," the wise Dick had advised, 
 " but bring your older sister with you. I do not think 
 it quite proper or safe for you to go out entirely alone." 
 So Ri was dragged out to countenance many silly 
 interviews that she did not see the least use or pleasure 
 in, and that always made her half sick with fright, 
 they were so improper. Ri was a quiet and matter- 
 of-fact girl, with no idle romance or foolish love of 
 adventure. She knew she was beautiful, and liked to 
 be properly admired ; but she did not want street 
 admiration. She expected to experience both court 
 ship and matrimony, and then settle down to live easily 
 and pleasantly, as her mother did. She could see no 
 possible advantage in flirting about with this young 
 ster, barely nineteen, who could not afford to marry if 
 he wished. She did not quite believe that he wished to 
 marry Sophy. Yet the young man had seriously pro 
 posed an elopement, and was now urging that it should 
 take place before the first of December. He was pre 
 pared to meet any objection to secrecy with a picture 
 of the tedious delay of a long engagement, which her 
 parents would undoubtedly decree on account of her 
 youth. But Sophy never thought of objecting to 
 secrecy; it would be such a grand thing to walk in upon 
 her astonished parents all married; and that, too, before 
 Ri had even come out ! 0, that would be a triumph
 
 SOPHY S POST OFFICE: 55 
 
 worth plotting and planning for, and even worth sacri 
 ficing the delights of an elegant trousseau ! Ri s 
 timidity was at a dead-lock between her fear of com 
 promising her propriety, and her fear of Dick. Dick 
 was quick, resolute, and had a masterful way with him 
 that Sophy worshipped, and Ri dared not disobey. 
 On the whole, Ri s fear of Dick held rather the strong 
 er place, although she was always torn by conflicting 
 terrors, when he had her hand drawn through one arm, 
 and Sophy s through the other, as they paced the 
 walks of a neighboring park ; and a great, merry-faced 
 policeman always stood or walked near them Dick 
 said to keep off intruders upon their little reunion. 
 The officer was idly endeavoring to discover " which 
 of those two girls that young spark was making love 
 to ; " but he never found out. 
 
 Thus matters stood while Noll had her inconvenient 
 measles. Sophy s correspondence had become of the 
 most weighty character. At home she made judicious 
 selections from her own and Ri s wardrobes, for an 
 extemporaneous trousseau, and packed it in two large 
 trunks. She chose a light green summer silk for her 
 wedding dress, which, although rather inappropriate 
 for the season, was certainly the prettiest and most 
 becoming one she had. In these arrangements she 
 found much excitement and smothered delight. 
 
 "Where are you going?" cried Eva, as Sophy
 
 56 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 dodged out from under the umbrella, and ran down 
 
 o 
 
 "F. Street, one rainy day. 
 
 " Don t wait. I ve got an errand to do," returned 
 Sophy, over her shoulder, through the driving rain. 
 
 Mrs. Meredith had been obliged to go out herself 
 that day; therefore she could not send the carnage for 
 the girls, and it had rained so that Sophy had not been 
 to her post office for three days. Eva quietly waited, 
 under her umbrella, at the street corner. Sophy turned 
 as she reached the friendly althea. 
 
 " Run along ! " she called. 
 
 " I can just as well wait," replied the considerate 
 Eva. 
 
 There was no help for it. Sophy turned her back, 
 and crouched upon the wet sidewalk, while she hastily 
 unlocked the box and possessed herself of three notes. 
 Crowding them into her pocket, she hurried back to 
 Eva. 
 
 " You needn t have waited," she said, ungraciously. 
 
 Eva saw that she had unwittingly stumbled upon 
 some of Sophy s privacy, and not wishing to be prying 
 or inquisitive, she asked no questions about her queer 
 errand down F. Street. 
 
 Sophy hurried to her own room, and went carefully 
 over each of her letters in the order of their date. 
 The first two contained nothing of importance; but 
 the last, like the others in style, had a definiteuess new 
 and startling.
 
 SOPHY S POST OFFICE. 57 
 
 " My own dear girl : This confounded rain has kept 
 you two days from the post-box ; but I must get word 
 to you to-day. I do not forget that to-morrow is your 
 beautiful sister s birthday, you know I never forget 
 what you tell me, and I want you to help me cele 
 brate it by a certain wedding that we have hinted at as 
 among the to bes. I am positively determined that it 
 shall take place to-morrow night. I shall be at the cor 
 ner of the next street with a coach at eight o clock. 
 You must not fail to meet me. Do not come without 
 Ri ; you know a marriage is not valid without a wit 
 ness. Drop me a line to-morrow morning to say that 
 
 you understand and agree. Ever your devoted 
 
 >> 
 
 Dick never signed more than one initial to any of 
 these letters, and often not even that. Sophy sat 
 silent and busy-brained. Only till to-morrow night 
 and she would be gone from this tedious house and 
 her hateful school ! Nobody had ever appreciated her 
 but her own Richie ! They would all think more of 
 her when she was married, and they saw how Richie 
 loved her. Ri came in while she sat in the dusk with 
 the open letters in her hand, and interrupted these 
 pleasant dreams. 
 
 " You contrived to get to the box, to-day," Ri said. 
 
 " Yes, and O, Ri, come here, and let me tell you 
 what he says."
 
 58 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 Ri drew a chair to her side. 
 
 "You know to-morrow is your birthday. I told 
 him of it ever so long ago; but I didn t suppose lie 
 would remember it. I believe he remembers every 
 thing I tell him. So he has written that we really 
 must be married to-morrow, in honor of your birthday. 
 He won t take no, and says he will be at the corner, 
 with a coach, at eight o clock, and we must come ! " 
 
 A sort of faintness came over Ri at the thought of 
 herself creeping out, in the dark, to a strange coach, 
 with a strange young man ; and she could find no 
 words or voice to reply to Sophy s exultant story. 
 
 " Won t it be splendid ! " urged Sophy. 
 
 " Aren t you afraid ? " returned Ri. 
 
 " You are a dreadfully chicken-hearted girl ! " cried 
 Sophy, in disgust. " I verily believe you ll be too 
 frightened to ever get married at all! Why, what 
 should I be afraid of?" 
 
 " Don t you think you ought to know more about 
 him ? " 
 
 "I do know about him. His family is just as re 
 spectable as ours. His father died when he was very 
 young, and his mother is a permanent invalid. He 
 has a sister who is coming out this very winter, under 
 her aunt Cobden s care, and she will be at the same 
 parties that you are." 
 
 " But has he any property ? And where is he going 
 to take you to live ? " urged Ri.
 
 SOPHY S POST OFFICE. 59 
 
 " Do you suppose I ever asked him any such ques 
 tions?" indignantly exclaimed Sophy. 
 
 "But seems to me he ought to tell you something of 
 the sort," Ri replied, still unsatisfied. 
 
 " Well, then, I ll tell you what I know. He has a 
 good position in his uncle Cobden s business, with 
 prospect of being junior partner when he is twenty- 
 one, and of ultimately succeeding to all the property, 
 for his uncle has no children." 
 
 "Did he tell you that?" 
 
 " No ; but I found it out." 
 
 It was some relief to Ri to have her prudence satis 
 fied as to the worldly prospects of her sister s intended 
 husband; still it did not overcome the faint sickness 
 that attacked her whenever she looked forward to the 
 following night. 
 
 Noll had taken an observation of this sisterly con 
 sultation tli rough the key-hole, as Dionysius ear gave 
 no distinct report of it. Noll s room was well warmed 
 now ; so she took her seat, without fear of cold, at her 
 tube, when she heard the girls talking, in bed, that 
 night. But she only caught a few disconnected sen 
 tences. 
 
 "There will be no moon." 
 
 " How dark it will be ! " shivered Ri. 
 
 " You must dress my hair." 
 
 " Yes, of course."
 
 60 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 "You will be at home again by nine." 
 
 "Will it take a whole hour?" 
 
 "That is according to how far we go." 
 
 "Tell him not to go far. We shall be missed." 
 
 "Suppose we are what of it?" 
 
 " O, dear, I dread it so ! " 
 
 " You are real silly, Ri ! There, go to sleep, and get 
 rested for to-morrow." 
 
 "I wonder if it is to-morrow," mused Noll, "and 
 what ever shall I do if it is?" She consulted her 
 pocket diary. There was no moon just at this time. 
 To-morrow night it would set at seven. "I m afraid 
 it is to-morrow ; and what ever shall I do ! " Even 
 now Noll had no thought of seeking the aid of either 
 
 O O 
 
 of her parents. 
 
 Ri came down next morning with dull eyes and a 
 heavy head. She had not slept at all, but she dared 
 not say so. Sophy was cool and collected, Noll un 
 usually observant. She was sorry to find that Jack 
 had gone out early, and would not return till dinner. 
 She would have liked to consult him on the impend- 
 
 
 
 ing elopement, that she felt almost sure was set for to 
 night. The rain had ceased. Sophy made an open 
 trip to her post-box, on her way to school, with a 
 hurried line, calculated to reassure her lover, and 
 promising compliance with his wishes. 
 
 "All right," said Dick, coolly, as he read it on his
 
 SOPHY S POST OFFICE. 61 
 
 way to business half an hour later. " I was sure Ri 
 wouldn t dare refuse. She is terribly afraid of me. 
 I can calculate a good deal on her fear, if not on her 
 affection ; " and Dick smiled a wicked little smile, as 
 he strode on with great internal glee. 
 
 " There is going to be a wedding in St. James 
 Chapel to-night," Dick carelessly announced to an old 
 schoolmate, as he swung himself idly about in an office 
 chair. Frank True was making him a friendly call, 
 while home from college for the mid-term recess. 
 
 "Who is to be married?" 
 
 " O, it s a private affair an elopement, in short. I 
 only heard of it through a friend who is going." 
 
 " I don t approve of elopements." 
 
 " O, nor I! That s why I mean to be present," 
 laughed Dick, with an attempt at wit. "It is an 
 old friend of yours, Frank. I advise you to go. Take 
 a back seat, of course, and not make yourself too 
 prominent." 
 
 "Friend of mine?" repeated Frank, in astonish 
 ment. 
 
 " Yes ; and I ll answer for it, he will be glad to see 
 you there after the ceremony is over." 
 
 "You have made me curious. Haven t you liberty 
 to name the parties ? " 
 
 "No, I have not. That is a secret." 
 
 "At what hour would you advise me to look in 
 at the chapel?"
 
 62 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION-. 
 
 "O, about eight, or a little after." 
 
 Later in the day, Dick could not refrain from giving 
 the same invitation to Mortimer Salsby, who readily 
 promised that he would not fail to be comfortably 
 seated behind a pillar to see this runaway wedding. 
 It would be better than the opera. 
 
 School was a mere dream to Sophy that day. She 
 made such queer blunders that the girls thought her 
 half crazy. But school was over at last, and Sophy 
 and Eva at home. Anxious Noll had worried herself 
 nearly into a fever. Ri was really sick with flight, 
 and had gone to bed. Meanwhile Mrs. Meredith was 
 idly planning her toilet for the evening, and called 
 Eva into her boudoir to ask what made them so early 
 home from school. 
 
 " I don t know, aunt, only we walked very fast. 
 Sophy was in a hurry." 
 
 "Can you tell me, dear, whether the lavender or 
 lemon-colored gloves harmonize best with this lilac 
 silk?" 
 
 "I think these delicate rose-colored ones are far the 
 
 t 
 
 prettiest, aunt," said Eva, decidedly. 
 
 "So they are! You have a very fine eye for color, 
 Eva. I like your taste, it is so exquisitely delicate;" 
 and aunt Matilda bestowed an approving pat on Eva s 
 cheek. 
 
 Noll heard with dismay that her mother was going
 
 SOPHY S POST OFFCE. 63 
 
 out. "What if Jack should go, too, as he probably 
 Avould ? Indeed, Jack had not yet come in had not 
 come when dinner was over. Mrs. Meredith was 
 dressing for the evening, while Noll restlessly per 
 vaded the halls, like an unlaid ghost. The programme 
 she had heard proposed was in progress. Ri was sick 
 in her room, and Sophy had benignly offered to sit by 
 her through the evening. Noll did not know that Hi s 
 sickness was more real than feigned. 
 
 "Ri, you must get up and make yourself ready," 
 said Sophy, as she turned herself about before the 
 mirror, arrayed in the light silk and her sister s best 
 laces. Ri had carefully dressed her hair, and gone 
 back upon the bed, in a tremor of faintness and 
 fear. 
 
 " Ri, it s half past seven," said Sophy, a few minutes 
 later. 
 
 " O, Sophy, I do really feel too sick to go ! " 
 
 "It s only because you are frightened. Get up and 
 stir round, and you ll be all over it." 
 
 Ri knew it was because she was frightened ; so she 
 rose, and began her toilet. Her fingers trembled so 
 she could scarcely fasten her clothes, and Sophy came 
 to her assistance. 
 
 "Come, hurry! It is ten minutes to eight," urged 
 Sophy, just as Ri took up the golden-brown silk she 
 intended to wear. Sophy could not have made a
 
 64 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 more unwise suggestion. Ri s lips turned white and 
 blue. She sank into the nearest chair. 
 
 " Sophy, I can t and won t stir a step ; " and poor Ri 
 burst into tears. 
 
 " O, don t, Ri ! What shall we do ? You know it 
 will not be legal without a witness." 
 
 " I can t help it ! Get whom you please, but I shan t 
 go ! " replied Ri, wiping her tears, and reviving with 
 her resolve. " Perhaps Noll will go." 
 
 "She won t. She is just that disobliging to me 
 always." 
 
 "Or Eva. Wouldn t Eva go?" 
 
 " Not if she knows where she is going. But she is 
 such a little innocent, perhaps she would go without 
 knowing. Put these things out of sight, and I ll go 
 find her." 
 
 So saying, Sophy tossed various articles of prinking 
 into the bureau drawer, turned up her sweeping silk 
 skirt wrong side out, and threw on a large water-proof 
 cloak. Ri hung up the brown silk, drew a wrapper 
 about her, and again lay down upon the bed. Sophy 
 listened cautiously in the hall, and peered down the 
 stairs, where she saw Noll posted beside the front door, 
 ready to pounce upon Jack the moment he entered. 
 So she softly opened the door of Eva s room, and 
 found her poring over her last letter from Charley. 
 
 " Eva, come into our room a moment," she almost 
 whispered.
 
 SOPHY S POST OFFICE. 65 
 
 " Yes ; " and Eva rose and followed her. 
 
 " Ma wants me to go on an errand for her before she 
 goes out," said Sophy, boldly. "The carriage is just 
 out here, but I don t want to go alone. Ri doesn t 
 feel able to go ; and would you be willing to go with 
 me, just for company ? You wouldn t be afraid of the 
 dark ? " Sophy s tone was so unusually sweet and 
 coaxing that Eva almost laughed. 
 
 "I m not afraid of the dark; but why doesn t aunt 
 send a servant?" 
 
 " She wants to match a certain shade, and servants 
 don t know colors." 
 
 " Well, I ll be ready in a moment," replied the un 
 suspecting little Eva. 
 
 " Here, take Ri s things," Sophy cried, eagerly, for 
 the clock-hand pointed at eight. She tossed from the 
 wardrobe Ri s jaunty black velvet hat, with its sweep 
 ing white feather, and then produced her cloak also. 
 " Come ; " and she led the way down a back stair 
 case at the rear of the upper hall. 
 
 "Why do you go this way?" asked Eva. 
 
 " The carriage is this way," said Sophy, as she closed 
 the basement door, and passed hastily on to the ap 
 pointed corner. Eva wonderingly followed, but was 
 reassured on seeing the carriage. It was very dark. 
 The clouds had returned again, after yesterday s rain, 
 and the wind blew gustily. 
 5
 
 66 EVA BOBEBTS EDUCATION. 
 
 " Here we are, Richie," whispered Sophy, giving him 
 her hand to enter the carriage. But Dick gently put 
 her back, and, lifting his hat profoundly to the little 
 black head with its sweeping white feather, put Eva 
 first into the carnage. 
 
 " What etiquette ! " thought Sophy, with a little in 
 ward laugh. 
 
 Bang went the door of the coach, and Dick sprang 
 on the box. 
 
 "Why, Rictie, Im Sophy!" 
 
 " I know it," replied Dick, as the driver gathered up 
 his reins. " I ve got Ri, and she is the one I wanted." 
 . " But, Richie, tisn t Ri ! tisn t Ri ! " 
 
 A jeering laugh was Dick s only answer, as the 
 coach rattled off, and left Sophy standing alone on 
 the damp sidewalk, in the dark November night.
 
 DENOUEMENTS. 67 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 DENOUEMENTS. 
 
 IT was half past eight when Jack Meredith ap 
 proached his father s house. Noll opened the door 
 the instant his foot touched the steps. 
 
 " O, Jack, you are terribly late!" she exclaimed, in 
 an excited half-whisper. " Come straight up to the 
 school-room with me. I ve an awful story to tell you ! " 
 
 " What s up now ? Anybody dead ? " he gasped, 
 as Noll led him on a breathless run up three long 
 flights of stairs. 
 
 The school-room was unlighted; but Noll pushed 
 him into a chair, and throned herself upon his lap, that 
 he might not escape. 
 
 " There s been an immense flirtation going on, ever 
 since last spring, with a dashing sort of fellow, whose 
 name is Dick Waters; and now to-night " 
 
 "Who flirted with him?" put in Jack. 
 
 " Why, the girls Sophy particularly. I don t 
 think Hi liked him much."
 
 68 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION". 
 
 " Is Mr. Jack here?" inquired Mrs. Meredith s maid, 
 putting her head into the dark school-room. 
 
 "Yes. What is it?" and Jack endeavored to slide 
 Noll from his lap. 
 
 But Noll held her place, whispering, " You shan t 
 go yet. I haven t told you!" 
 
 "Mrs. Meredith says, will you please hurry with 
 your dinner, because it is getting late for Mrs. Mars- 
 ton s party?" 
 
 "I ll be ready in less than half an hour. And, 
 Fanny, say that I have dined already." 
 
 Noll waited to hear the girl s feet upon the stairs, 
 and then proceeded. " Sophy has gone off with him. 
 to-night, to be married. Perhaps they are married 
 already." 
 
 " What ! Those children ! Are you sure, Noll ? " 
 
 " Yes. It was to be all over, and Ri at home again 
 by nine." 
 
 "You don t mean that Ri countenanced " 
 
 " Well, these are pretty stories to be telling right 
 before my face and eyes !" snarled Sophy, from a dis 
 tant corner. She had crept into the house, and, wish 
 ing only to hide her rage and mortification, had sought 
 the deserted school-room. 
 
 " Sophy ! " exclaimed both, in the same breath. Jack 
 quickly put Noll off his lap, and lighted the gas. It 
 was unmistakably Sophy, but she was shrouded in her
 
 DENOUEMENTS. 69 
 
 heavy cloak, and wore a hat certainly unnecessary 
 garments for her present surroundings. 
 
 Jack laid a hand heavily on her shoulder. " Then 
 we have caught you before you got off for your mad 
 prank ! " he said, sternly. 
 
 " I haven t any mad prank. I have been out, and 
 come back. I came up here to be quiet a while, and 
 this is what I hear of myself." 
 
 "Then is it over?" asked Noll, in trembling tones. 
 " Are you married already ? " 
 
 " No, and don t mean to be," snapped Sophy. 
 
 Jack turned to Noll, and laughed. 
 
 " Mrs. Meredith says," began Fanny again at the 
 door. 
 
 " 0, yes ; I m coming ! " and Jack ran down stairs 
 to dress for the evening. 
 
 " I m much obliged to you, marm," Sophy pro 
 ceeded ; "but your suspicions have run so far wide 
 of the truth that, I hope, in future, you will just mind 
 your own business." 
 
 " But weren t you going to mary Dick Waters ? " 
 
 " I hate Dick Waters ! and don t you ever mention 
 his name to me again ! " and Sophy sailed out of the 
 school-room, and went down to make the mortifying 
 disclosure that must come, sooner or later, to Ri. 
 
 Eva was startled when the carriage door was so 
 quickly shut upon her. She could uot catch the words
 
 70 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 of the hasty colloquy ousicle, nor find any sense in 
 Sophy s wild shout, that sounded like " tisn tl." As 
 the wheels rattled over the pavement, and she realized 
 that she was being driven away by a stranger in the 
 night, she knew not whither, a dumb sort of terror 
 came over her, and her heart seemed to cease beating. 
 The coach suddenly stopped, and the square figure, 
 which she had thought very unlike her aunt s footman, 
 sprang in, and took the seat beside her. Eva s very 
 breath seemed to stop, and the wheels again rolled 
 rapidly on. 
 
 " You are not afraid of me?" said Dick, in his kind 
 est tone, as he bent to catch a glimpse of her face. 
 But the long feather drooped between them, and it 
 was very dark in the carriage. Dick only succeeded 
 in convincing himself that his lady-love was not weep 
 ing. She did not answer, nor attempt to do so. She 
 was weighing the propriety of trying to open the coach 
 door at her side, and jump out between the whirling 
 wheels, at the risk of her life and limbs ; but she decided 
 it would not be wise to attempt such a desperate meas 
 ure at present. 
 
 " You know, dear, that I have loved you from the 
 time we first met. I only made this plan with Sophy 
 that she might bring you to me." 
 
 "And what do you want with me?" asked Eva, in 
 what was meant to be a very brave tone, but which 
 fell away on her lips to a mere whisper.
 
 DENOUEMENTS. 71 
 
 "Just what I told Sophy, to celebrate our wed 
 ding to-night." 
 
 Eva wondered that Sophy had not had the con 
 sideration to just mention to her that such an ar 
 rangement was planned before taking her out in this 
 unceremonious manner. 
 
 " Is that really what you want of me ? " she asked ; 
 and the slight relief she felt at knowing the definite 
 end of this dark journey was just perceptible in her 
 faint voice. 
 
 " Truly it is, my darling," replied Dick, with great 
 earnestness. "Will you go with me to the church?" 
 
 Eva did not see how she was to help going, at the 
 rate they were then travelling ; but she did not reply. 
 
 " I have it all arranged," urged Dick. " We are to 
 go to St. James chapel. The minister will be there, 
 and one or two witnesses. We will be married at 
 once, and then I will take you to my home." 
 
 Eva s fright was subsiding. She was hastily run 
 ning over the programme in her own mind, and 
 arranging her safest way of escape. If she refused, 
 where would he take her? and what might he not do 
 with her? At the chapel would be the minister and 
 witnesses. They would sustain her if she made her 
 objections there. Moreover, something in his tone 
 and manner had seemed familiar, and the flash of 
 friendly street lamps had assisted her to recognize the 
 jolly Dick Waters.
 
 72 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 " Say you will go, dearest, and make me perfectly 
 happy, once and forever." Dick made an impressive 
 pause. Eva did not have to feign the frightened little 
 quiver with which she answered, " Yes, I will go," as 
 she tried to draw away the hand he had taken. But 
 the buoyant bridegroom suddenly caught her little 
 figure in his arms, and aimed an ecstatic kiss under the 
 drooping feather. Poor Eva didn t know what made 
 her so ashamed, or why the dreadful color burned up 
 over all her face, as she hid it upon the window-sill. 
 
 "There, don t feel badly," he said, kindly. "I m 
 sorry if you didn t like it." At the same moment he 
 opened the window, and called out, " St. James " to 
 the driver. This patient individual, who had been 
 driving around the square in which that edifice stood 
 for the last ten minutes, lost no time in turning his 
 vehicle about, and drawing it up before the door, 
 which he had just passed for the third time. 
 
 The little chapel was dimly lighted, having evidently 
 been opened for this ceremony alone. Eva did not 
 know that she hung her head as Dick took her from 
 the coach, but she knew she was cheating him, and 
 felt almost ashamed of it, though it was in self-defence. 
 She caught a glimpse of a man in the dark entry, as 
 they passed through it. She saw- Mortimer Salsby 
 leaning idly against a pillar, as they walked up the 
 aisle ; but she did not hear him mutter, " Silly young-
 
 DENOUEMENTS. 73 
 
 sters ! " behind them. Even Dick almost trembled 
 when he had drawn her hand firmly through his arm, 
 and was marching bravely toward the altar. He 
 stared straight before him, sternly resolved to do the 
 deed he had undertaken. He did not dare glance at 
 the little figure beside him, but he was inwardly glory 
 ing in the admiration Salsby must experience for Ri s 
 beautiful face. Eva longed to spring from his side to 
 the minister, and explain her position; but a certain 
 awe had fallen upon her in the dim, empty church, and 
 Dick held fast her hand, as if he half feared to lose 
 her yet. Mortimer Salsby and Frank True stepped 
 softly near as the minister rose and began, his prayer. 
 How Eva trembled ! And Dick was trembling, too, 
 in truth ; but his heart was very brave, and he looked 
 as fearless as possible, with his two black beads of eyes 
 fixed upon a tassel of the pulpit cushion, just above his 
 head. He answered in clear tones, "I do," when asked 
 if he took this woman to be his lawful wedded wife. 
 Eva s head drooped lower. What a pity he had not 
 looked to see who it was, before he made the promise ! 
 The similar question was repeated, in the solemn tones 
 of the clergyman to Eva. She half raised her head. 
 Accepting the motion as acquiescence, he was hastening 
 on, when she broke forth, quickly, "No; O, no!" 
 
 Ah, the astonishment of that minister! The cold 
 horror that settled over Dick! And the amusement 
 of the two bystanders !
 
 74 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 " Ri ! " exclaimed Dick, with smothered seventy, as 
 he griped her hand tightly, ready even now to assume 
 marital authority, having taken his part of the vow. 
 
 But Eva looked up into his face, and answered, 
 "No ; I never said I would marry you." 
 
 Dick dropped the hand he held. He grew white, 
 and red, and purple, as he surveyed his awkward 
 position. 
 
 " There has been a mistake, sir," he said, turning 
 to the shocked minister. 
 
 " Should think there had," said the low voice of 
 Mortimer Salsby. 
 
 " I must certainly hope there has," said the clergy 
 man, gravely. Dick drew him aside for private ex 
 planation. Frank True approached Eva, who stood, 
 with downcast eyes, leaning heavily on the front pew 
 
 rail. 
 
 
 
 " Eva ! " 
 
 " O, Frank!" she cried, as she caught his hand in 
 both of hers, and burst into tears. All her bravery and 
 wise strength seemed to melt in one moment, at sight 
 of his kind, familiar face. 
 
 "Don t do that," said Frank, gently, but firmly. 
 Eva recognized the good sense of the advice, and again 
 stood silent and quiet. 
 
 "How did all this happen?" he asked. 
 
 "I don t understand it myself; but he must have
 
 DENOUEMENTS. 75 
 
 thought I was Ri. I happened to have put on 
 her hat and cloak, and he called me Ri, when I 
 said no." 
 
 " But how did he get you here ? " 
 
 " Sophy coaxed me out to go on an errand with her 
 in the carriage. I thought it was aunt s carriage, and 
 Sophy was going too. But no sooner was I inside 
 than the door was shut, and I was driven off alone. 
 Then Dick got in, and it didn t occur to me that he 
 mistook me for Ri. So, when he insisted upon marry 
 ing me, I promised to go to the church with him, 
 because I thought I could get away from him here, 
 and I couldn t in the carriage." 
 
 "Then you knew Dick?" 
 
 " Only by sight. He used to go to school with you 
 and Charley." 
 
 Dick had partially explained to the minister, and 
 handsomely paid for the interrupted ceremony, as 
 well as the promise of secrecy concerning the matters, 
 which he had elicited. He now approached his friends, 
 saying, with an uncomfortable smile and an attempt 
 at gayety, " My little plan for a wedding to-night has 
 miscarried, and you will have to defer the congratula 
 tions you, no doubt, intended to bestow upon me. I 
 hope, however, they will keep. Miss Roberts, your 
 feather led me to suppose you quite another person. I 
 thank you for preventing the consummation of the
 
 76 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 marrinee, as it was not the one I wished to make. I 
 
 O 
 
 will take you home, now." 
 
 "Miss Roberts need not trouble you to do that, 
 unless she chooses. It would give me pleasure to see 
 her safely home," said Frank. 
 
 " Thank you. I d rather go with you," Eva replied, 
 gratefully. Frank led her out, and gave the coachman 
 his order. In the carriage Eva told him all she knew 
 of the evening s strange events, and in his brotherly 
 companionship recovered from her nervousness and 
 fright before she reached her uncle s house. 
 
 " Well, Waters, I have you to thank for the most 
 entertaining joke I have known this many a day," said 
 the smooth, musical voice of Mortimer Salsby, as he 
 fastened himself to Dick s side, when they reached the 
 street. 
 
 " O, never mind ! the game isn t over yet," said 
 Dick, trying to keep up his spirits under a very heavy 
 weight of mortification. How he wished he had not 
 invited Salsby to the wedding! 
 
 "Have you tried this little farce many times be 
 fore?" asked Mortimer, -with gentle wickedness. 
 
 " What do you mean ? " growled Dick. 
 
 " I thought you went through it like an old actor," 
 he said, in conciliating tones. 
 
 Dick muttered an oath, and said no more. 
 
 " I wonder where Eva is." Noll had looked through
 
 DENOUEMENTS. 77 
 
 the drawing-rooms, dining-room, and halls, and popped 
 her head into the library. She had searched her moth 
 er s boudoir, the school-room, and their own chamber. 
 At last she knocked at Hi s door. 
 
 "What do you want?" cried Sophy, ungraciously. 
 
 Noll opened the door and entered before replying. 
 " Where s Eva? I ve looked through the house, from, 
 end to end, and from garret to cellar, and she is no 
 where to be found. Isn t she here?" 
 
 Both girls were silent. Both were, in their hearts, 
 frightened at the thought of Eva driven away alone 
 with the untrusty Dick, though Sophy persisted that 
 he would bring her back fast enough, when he found 
 out who she was. Sophy answered fii st. 
 
 "No, she isn t here. Can t you see that for 
 yourself ? " 
 
 " Where can she be ? " 
 
 "I m sure I don t know. Can t she take care of 
 herself for half an hour, without your following her 
 round, as you always do?" 
 
 " Well, Sophy, you aren t a bit cross to-night are 
 you?" and Noll went unsatisfied away. 
 
 "Good night," said Frank, on the steps. "I shall 
 call to-morrow, if you are willing ; and I hope you can 
 tell me all about this mysterious affair." 
 
 " Yes ; come, and I will tell you all I can learn ; " 
 and Eva tripped lightly in, as the door was opened.
 
 78 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION". 
 
 "Miss Eva, is it you!" exclaimed the servant, in 
 astonishment. 
 
 " You needn t say I was out," said Eva, quietly, as 
 she passed on up stairs. 
 
 " Naw, I won t ! " was the wondering reply. 
 
 Eva went directly to Hi s room, to return her un 
 fortunate borrowed plumage. 
 
 " O, Eva, tell us all about it ! " cried Ri, sitting up in 
 bed, and reviving rapidly at seeing her little cousin safe, 
 and apparently not nearly so much frightened as 
 herself. 
 
 "What did that wretch do and say?" asked Sophy, 
 eagerly and indignantly. 
 
 "Now, I ll tell you how it is, girls;" and Eva sat 
 down by the register, and put her little feet upon it. 
 " You got me into a very hard place to-night, and it is 
 my right to know all about it. So you must tell me." 
 
 " O, you have come back, Evvy ! " said Noll, who 
 had heard her voice through the Dionysius, and come 
 into her sister s room at once, to know where she had 
 been hiding. 
 
 "I wish you d go away, Noll," said Sophy. 
 
 "You generally do," coolly replied Noll. 
 
 " We were going to talk with Eva," urged Ri, more 
 gently. 
 
 " Well, Evvy and I tell each other everything ; so 
 it s all the same whether I am here or not."
 
 DENOUEMENTS. 79 
 
 " But Eva won t tell you this," said Ri, " because it 
 is an affair of ours, and she has no right to tell it." 
 
 " O, if you mean about Sophy s eloping with Dick 
 Waters, I know she meant to do it. I suppose he has 
 changed his mind, she is so savage about him all at 
 once," replied Noll, hazarding a bright guess at a prob 
 lem she really did not understand. 
 
 " I m not savage about him," cried Sophy. " But I 
 wouldn t marry such a mean, saucy, impudent fellow 
 for all the world ! " 
 
 Noll laughed, and asked if she knew " why Jacky 
 wouldn t eat his supper." 
 
 " Noll, will you go out of this room ? " said Sophy, 
 calm with the very fierceness of her rage. 
 
 " Yes ; but if I do, I ll listen at the key-hole, or some 
 other good place, and hear all you say. When folks 
 propose getting married, the news is public property, 
 and can t be monopolized," returned the imperturbable 
 Noll, leaning easily against the mantel. 
 
 " It isn t of any use, Sophy," said Ri. " Noll knows 
 so much already, we had better tell her the whole, or 
 she will never believe that the affair is really ended." 
 
 " Tell it yourself, then ; I won t ! " and Sophy 
 flounced out of the room. 
 
 Ri did tell all about it, smoothing over Sophy s 
 absurd position as kindly as she could. Then Eva 
 related her adventures ; and all promised that, as the
 
 80 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION". 
 
 matter was really ended, and neither Sophy nor Dick 
 could wish to resume their clandestine acquaintance 
 and correspondence, the affair should be kept among 
 the four girls, and no one of them should divulge it 
 to Mr. and Mrs. Meredith.
 
 El s PROSPECTS. 81 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Rl s PROSPECTS. 
 
 FRANK called next day, and Eva related to 
 him, under promise of secrecy, the story of the 
 proposed elopement, as she had learned it from Ri. 
 
 "I always despised Dick Waters," he said, when he 
 had heard it all. 
 
 " I used to think he was not thoroughly good and 
 honorable, when I was a little girl, and he went to 
 school with Charley," replied Eva. 
 
 Frank gave a queer look of mingled surprise and 
 respect at the little figure sitting upright upon a low 
 ottoman, and scarcely knew what to say to this wise 
 reminiscence. 
 
 Perhaps Eva would not have been allowed to enjoy 
 Frank s call alone, if her aunt had not happened to be 
 out. Mrs. Meredith would have thought it far more 
 proper that so young a lady should receive her gentle 
 man friends in the presence of her elders. But she 
 did not know beforehand that he was to come, and, 
 6
 
 82 EVA EOBEBTS EDUCATION. 
 
 confidence not being a predominant trait in the mem 
 bers of her household, she never heard of it afterward. 
 She was very busy, at this time, with her own anxious 
 maternal plans and arrangements. The season had 
 opened brilliantly, and every evening saw her, accom 
 panied by Jack, gracing the parlors of some elegant 
 mansion, or displaying her costly wardrobe and still 
 handsome face at the opera. She had already com 
 menced her campaign, in behalf of her oldest daughter, 
 with great care and address. She had shown remarka 
 ble affability to "that elegant young Salsby," who, 
 fully recognizing her object, received her attentions 
 with politeness, and laughed at them in his heart. She 
 had also patronized, though to a less degree, " a cer 
 tain young Waters, who showed her great deference 
 and politeness," and "an oldish Scotch gentleman, Don 
 aldson by name, a bachelor, and very wealthy, who 
 was passing the winter in New York, and was regarded 
 as something of a lion." Mrs. Meredith had given the 
 above description of the three gentlemen she had al 
 ready selected as eligible parties for her daughter Hi. 
 Hi heard and acquiesced with only the slight mental 
 reservation of placing the Scotch gentleman before 
 Dick "Waters on the list, as she had acquired a dis 
 gust for that young man as strong as any feeling, ex 
 cept fear, that she had ever experienced. 
 
 It was just one week before the day set by Mrs.
 
 El s PROSPECTS. 83 
 
 Meredith for her entertainment, that Mrs. Cobden gave 
 hers, and Clara Waters came upon the stage of fash 
 ionable life. Thus it followed that Miss Waters was, 
 of course, included in Mrs. Meredith s invitation to 
 Mr. and Mrs. Cobden ; and Miss Waters was also 
 privately instructed, by her brother Dick, to " strike 
 up an intimacy with Miss Meredith as fast as possi 
 ble." 
 
 0, that week before Hi s party, when the seam 
 stress and dress-maker were finishing off such piles 
 of elegant things for Ri! How Sophy sighed over 
 them, and wished she, too, were coming out! Though 
 she continually ignored the tenth commandment, it 
 was not quite all envy that made this a particularly 
 unhappy time for her. Thus far in their lives, Ri and 
 Sophy had been always together. They had shared 
 all their joys and sorrows. Now this bond was to be 
 broken. Ri was to enter a new life, where Sophy was 
 forbidden. Sophy could not follow until Ri should 
 have stepped out of this fairy land of young ladyhood 
 through the destined door of matrimony ; for Mrs. 
 Meredith would not think of allowing a younger 
 daughter to come out until the older one was pro 
 vided for, in a home of her own. The girls could never 
 again be to each other what they had been. 
 
 Sophy, Noll, and Eva had all volunteered, as maids, 
 for the pleasant task of dressing Ri on the important
 
 84 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION*. 
 
 ni<jht of her first appearance. Mrs. Meredith crime 
 with her own mard, having finished an early toilet 
 for herself, in order to put the last touches to Hi s cos 
 tume. Very beautiful was Ri, as she stood for inspec 
 tion by the interested and admiring little group, under 
 the full glare of the gas, draped in the rich folds of u 
 delicate fawn-colored silk, edged with gauzy laces. Her 
 fair round arms and neck were plump with the fresh 
 ness of youth and health, her cheeks rosy, and her 
 soft eyes shining with excitement. 
 
 "You are right out lovely!" cried Noll, with enthu 
 siasm. "If I were only some nice young man, I d 
 fall in love with you forthwith smash!" 
 
 " Fanny, bring the pearl powder frgm. my boudoir," 
 said Mrs. Meredith, who had been critically examining 
 Ri. "Your neck, dear, is not so white as your shoul 
 ders. It must have been tanned a little at the sea-shore 
 last summer." 
 
 "You are not going to paint her!" cried Eva. 
 
 " Don t be foolish, child ! You would not have her 
 looking as if her neck were dirty would you? " 
 
 " Heigh-ho ! " grimaced Noll. " I hope my character 
 is above the suspicion of dirt, if my skin should shade 
 a little darker in one place than another." 
 
 " It would never do to put pearl powder on you," 
 retorted Sophy, "unless it were put all over you." 
 
 " Glad of it," said Noll.
 
 El s PROSPECTS. 85 
 
 As Mrs. Meredith, followed by Ri, swept down to 
 the drawing-rooms, Eva looked half sadly after them, 
 with a smile and a sigh together. 
 
 "Tired, Evvy?" asked Noll. 
 
 " No ; I was thinking." 
 
 " It won t be your time for a long while to come," 
 said Sophy, decisively. 
 
 "It wasn t that. I was wondering if it paid." 
 
 "I think it pays for Ri, because she is beautiful," re 
 plied Noll. "It is worth while to spend time on dress 
 when you are a success in the end. It would pay for 
 you Evvy. Wouldn t you make a beauty in pale blue 
 silk, with white laces ? But for Sophy and me, it 
 would be just the height of folly." 
 
 Sophy -looked wrathful, but held her peace. 
 
 " I am afraid it is hardly worth while for any one, 
 there are so many things of more consequence," said 
 Eva. 
 
 "What things?" snapped Sophy. 
 
 " O, I d rather live with Charley, and help him work 
 at something." 
 
 "I m not so fond of work," replied Sophy. "I d 
 rather be rich, and enjoy myself. I shall be so glad 
 when ^can go into society, and see and hear all that 
 is going on, and flirt, and be admired, and " 
 
 "Now, Sophy," interrupted Noll, "I want to ask you 
 one common-sense question, just there. What do you
 
 86 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 expect to to be admired for? You aren t beautiful, 
 and you certainly aren t amiable " 
 
 " Noll Meredith, hold your tongue ! I look as well 
 as you do, and I m a deal better mannered," retorted 
 Sophy, angrily. 
 
 Noll ran off laughing to her own room, whither Eva 
 soon followed. The younger girls spent a dull even 
 ing in their rooms, where they could not help hearing 
 nil the joyful sounds of the company down stairs. So 
 phy was looking forward to the treat of hearing all 
 about it when Hi came to bed, and so went early to 
 sleep, as Ri had promised to wake her and tell over all 
 that had happened. 
 
 Midway the long drawing-rooms stood Mr. and Mrs. 
 Meredith, receiving their guests and presenting their 
 daughter. Group after group passed up, exchanged 
 greetings, spoke a word of welcome to Ri, and moved 
 on to make way for the next in order. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Cobden made their stiff speeches, and Clara Waters, a 
 roly-poly, dimpled little girl, seized Ri s hand to exclaim, 
 "I m so glad you have corne out this winter with me! 
 It will be so delightful to meet you everywhere ! It 
 seems as if I had known you for years." To all these 
 cordial remarks Ri replied only with a polite " thank 
 you," and what Noll called her " company smile." She 
 could not say more, for there was Dick hurriedly mur 
 muring, "I hope, Miss Meredith, we resume our acquaint-
 
 El s PEOSPECTS. 87 
 
 ance under more favorable auspices." To this also she 
 replied with the " company smile," and a faint " thank 
 you," though feeling that it was not exactly the answer 
 she would have wished to make. Mr. and Mrs. Dana 
 came next. Ri s meaningless smile warmed a little 
 under Mrs. Dana s pleasant words and sweet face. But 
 it was only to grow too warm, and bring a flush upon 
 her forehead, as Mr. Salsby followed them and was in 
 troduced. She could not help the shy admiration that 
 peeped from her eyes, hiding under their long lash 
 es, as she saw his handsome face, elegant dress and 
 figure, and remembered that this was the man whom 
 her mother had privately instructed her she should 
 use all her efforts to secure for a husband. Mortimer 
 did not fail to observe all this, nor to understand its 
 meaning. He was quite used to this sort of thing, 
 and only smiled a smile that had one meaning to him 
 self and another to the gay company around him. 
 New and strange faces followed, and Ri continued, 
 with her polite " thank yous " and stereotyped smile, to 
 answer them all alike, till her attention was arrested 
 by hearing her mother pronounce distinctly at her 
 ear, " Mr. Donaldson, my dear ; " and her little gloved 
 hand was imprisoned for a moment in that of a stout, 
 ruddy-faced, elderly gentleman. Of course it was not 
 at all elegant to shake hands, and it was none of Ri s 
 intention to do so. But Mrs. Meredith smiled benign-
 
 88 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 ly on the blunder, and Ri blushed uncomfortably, and 
 again said, " Thank you," as the gentleman expressed 
 his pleasure that she had emerged from seclusion be 
 fore it was too late for him to have the gratification 
 of meeting her. There were but few more arrivals. 
 As Ri moved from her position of reception to mingle 
 with the guests, Mr. Donaldson addressed her, to ex 
 press his admiration of some Scottish scenes he had dis 
 covered in a book of engravings, and detained her to 
 point out and explain hidden beauties in many views 
 with which he was familiar. Ri listened with attention, 
 and even well-feigned interest, though she privately 
 regarded engravings as a polite nuisance. She won 
 dered where he found the book, for she was sure she 
 had never seen it in the drawing-room before. She 
 caught an approving smile from her mother, and sud 
 denly observed that the book was quite new. She 
 bethought herself that engravings might be as good 
 as anything else to make talk about. Perhaps Mr. 
 Donaldson only used these for a peg to hang conversa 
 tion upon ; in fact, as she observed his labored remarks 
 and evident pleasure in all her senseless replies, she 
 concluded it must be so, and with a very natural and 
 amiable desire to please, exerted herself more in her 
 part of the conversation. Mr. Donaldson continued 
 with renewed vigor to harp upon Scotch scenery, seem 
 ing quite unable to suggest a new subject. Ri was
 
 El s PROSPECTS. 89 
 
 secretly wondering why Mr. Salsby had not come to 
 speak with her again, and hoping he was delaying in 
 order to take her down to supper. Just as she was be 
 coming unutterably bored with the old Scotch gentle 
 man, and with all Scotland generally, Clara Waters in 
 terrupted them by dragging Ri away to ask the names 
 of some flowers in one of the vases in the hall. Under 
 the vase stood Dick, who entered with great apparent in 
 terest into the flower question. Then Clara s attention 
 was caught by some one in the drawing-rooms, and she 
 fluttered away and left them alone. This was just 
 what Dick had wanted. He had devoted himself ^o 
 Mrs. Meredith since the eventful night of the 20th 
 of November, and had concluded from her manner 
 toward him that she knew nothing of the insult he 
 had given Sophy, and the daring impertinence he had 
 planned for Ri. Yet it was not without some dread 
 that he had accepted her invitation to make the ac 
 quaintance of her daughter upon regular conventional 
 ground. Pie still cherished his former determination 
 to marry Ri, and hoped she would soon be prevailed 
 upon to overlook the past, and begin again as friends 
 in new and honest standing. 
 
 " I am more glad than you know to be allowed to 
 meet you again, Ri," he said, bending his head over 
 the flowers. "I hope it was not without your kind 
 consent that I received my invitation here."
 
 90 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 "Ma sent invitations where she thought right. I 
 did not know much about it." 
 
 "Then I may at least infer that your mother does 
 not regard me with displeasure or disapproval?" 
 
 " She does not know what I know about you." 
 
 " You will forgive it, dear, because you .know why I 
 did it. A woman can be lenient to the impulsive 
 errors of a man who loves her," returned this infatu 
 ated youth, who thought, because he was, or s.upposed 
 himself to be, in love with one w r oman, every sort of 
 impertinence to another was to be immediately for 
 given him. He did not dream that Ri resented his 
 treatment of Sophy as thoroughly as if the insult had 
 been to herself; and Ri did not dare tell him so, it 
 would have been so dreadfully impolite ! So she only 
 blushed up redly to the shining waves of her pretty 
 auburn hair, cast down her eyes with their long lashes, 
 and was silent, looking a hundred times prettier in her 
 anger and confusion, but only making Dick more mad 
 ly in love, and more fully convinced of her forgiveness 
 and good will. 
 
 "I shall claim the honor of leading you down to 
 supper, for auld acquaintance sake, " Dick resumed, 
 in a lighter tone. " You will not refuse it? " 
 
 Ri s vexation here found polite vent. " Thank you ; 
 but I am to go to supper with brother Jack." 
 
 "Is that irrevocably so arranged?"
 
 El s PEOSPECTS. 91 
 
 "O, yes; ma would not have it any other way," 
 replied Ri, supporting her first polite fib with a second, 
 finding, as is usually the case, that "one lie will not 
 stand alone." 
 
 " Not if I were to beg the favor of her myself? " 
 
 " To attempt that would be to place altogether too 
 great faith in your powers of persuasion;" and Ri 
 moved toward the drawing-room, feeling that she had 
 been guilty of a great indecorum by remaining so long 
 in the hall. Dick offered her his arm, which she would 
 have gladly declined, only it would be rude. They 
 mingled with the guests in the bright and heated par 
 lors; but Ri soon escaped from Dick, and went to 
 find Jack. 
 
 " I want to go down to supper with you," she whis 
 pered, close to Jack s ear. 
 
 " Don t be in a hurry ! You will have some gallant 
 companion yet." 
 
 " But I d rather go with you." 
 
 " Nonsense ! That wouldn t do at all. I am to wait 
 upon Miss Schneider, supposed to be the lioness of the 
 evening, next to yourself. I ll draw you into the 
 neighborhood of Salsby. Then, if you engage him in 
 talk, he will take you down." 
 
 "But I don t want to do so, Jack," faltered Ri, 
 growiag flushed and anxious, and half ready to cry 
 at the failure of her little ruse.
 
 92 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 "There, don t get flustered. Here comes mother: 
 she ll settle it all for you;" and Jack slid away to 
 ensconce himself in the vicinity of the young lady 
 upon whom he intended to bestow himself for the 
 ceremony of supper. Mrs. Meredith approached, close 
 ly followed by Mr. Donaldson. 
 
 "Where have you been hiding yourself, my dear? 
 I have been looking for you." 
 
 " I did not know I was hiding," said Ri, smiling 
 naturally for once, and taking real comfort in looking 
 into her mother s familiar face. 
 
 "Mrs. Meredith tells me," put in Mr. Donaldson, 
 " that the company are already passing out for refresh 
 ments, and I have begged her to bring me to you, that 
 I might have the pleasure of being your escort." 
 
 Poor Hi did not know how to answer. Jack had 
 repudiated all her claims upon him. She was so anx 
 ious to decline the honor, she came near saying that 
 " Mr. Waters had bespoken that positiqn," but remem 
 bered that she had refused it to him. She saw her 
 mother s glance of calm displeasure at her silence, and 
 took despairing refuge in her polite "thank you," and 
 " company smile." Slipping her little hand within 
 the offered arm of the excellent gentleman, she 
 allowed him to lead her away to the dining-rooms. 
 As she took the plate of ice and cake he brought, her 
 eyes met an angry and reproachful glance from Dick
 
 El S PBOSPECTS. 93 
 
 Waters. He, in emulation of her sisterly devotion, 
 had waited upon Clara, very much to the disgust of 
 that young lady, who imagined that nothing but 
 J3ick s interference had prevented her from receiving 
 the attendance of Mr. Salsby. Mr. Salsby, having just 
 missed of the company of Miss Schneider, who seemed 
 quite happy in Jack s attentive care, had cast away his 
 very desirable society upon a little, pale, delicate wo 
 man, scarcely larger than a child ; though, to judge by 
 her face, her years must have reached the frightful sum 
 of quarter of a century. Having made this sacrifice, 
 Mr. Salsby followed it up bravely by exerting his 
 fascinating conversational powers to their best, and 
 found himself unexpectedly repaid for his trouble. 
 Lucy Starr s modest and quiet little face lighted up ; 
 she forgot her shyness in the anecdotes of foreign 
 life with which he at first entertained her, and was 
 soon relating, eagerly, stories of her own more limited 
 travels. Before their return to the drawing-room, she 
 had mentally decided that he was the most delightful 
 gentleman she had ever met ; while he confessed to 
 himself that Miss Starr was positively refreshing a 
 woman who seemed to have not the least intention of 
 making an impression upon his masculine admiration. 
 After supper dancing commenced. Jack good-humored- 
 ly, but rather officiously, contrived to present Morti 
 mer Salsby for Ri s first partner ; and Ri, who did not
 
 94 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 know that Mr. Salsby had not begged the privilege, 
 felt it quite a triumph, as she whirled through the 
 dance at his side, listening to his easy chat, amid the 
 music and motion, and giving her half shy, but very, 
 polite, little replies. Then Dick Waters claimed her ; 
 and Ri did not know that, over her vexation at his 
 only half-concealed admiration and devotion, her quiet 
 and polite demeanor appeared exactly the same that 
 it was with her previous partner. Ri had not the gift 
 of expressing fine shades of feeling. It is just possi 
 ble, however, that if she had possessed feelings of a 
 stronger and warmer nature, they would have made 
 themselves more apparent. Mr. Dana begged a dance 
 with her, while his wife was promised to Jack. After 
 ward he seated Ri beside her, and soon had wandered 
 off and left them together. 
 
 " How glad I am to sit down ! " said Ri. 
 
 "I should think you would be," replied Mrs. Dana, 
 with one of her old, sweet smiles, though her eyes 
 were gazing sadly down the vista of the bright draw 
 ing-rooms. 
 
 " You look very tired," said Ri, gently. " I hope 
 you are not so." 
 
 "No, I am not tired," she replied. "I was remem 
 bering the last time I was in this house." 
 
 " Before we came here ? " 
 
 "Yes; I came to see Mrs. Roberts, just before they 
 moved away."
 
 El s PBOSPECTS. 95 
 
 "Mr. Roberts was my uncle." 
 
 "I did not know that. Then can you tell me what 
 has become of your cousins, Charley and Eva? Their 
 uncle, Mr. Martyn, called upon me, but he had then 
 formed no definite plan for them. I have heard 
 nothing from them since they left Campfields." 
 
 " Why, Eva is here with us. . She goes to school 
 with Noll and Sophy, and is to stay here till she 
 finishes her education." 
 
 "I am glad to hear that. When I call upon your 
 mother and you, I hope I shall have the pleasure of 
 seeing her again. I knew her mother very well, and 
 also Charley and Eva, some years ago. Will you 
 please give my love to Eva, and say that I hope she 
 has not quite forgotten Mary True." 
 
 " I will tell her. You were going to speak of the 
 last time you were here." 
 
 " No, there is nothing to tell about that. It was 
 only a little errand that called me here, a day or two 
 before Mrs. Roberts left." 
 
 Mr. Dana returned for his wife, and they took their 
 leave. The crowd of guests had thinned perceptibly. 
 Clara Waters again clutched Ri s hand to whisper, 
 "Good night, you beautiful darling; I wish there 
 weren t so many folks here, so I could kiss you;" 
 and receive another of Ri s smiles and "thank yous." 
 Mr. Donaldson bestowed upon her an impressive, hand-
 
 96 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 shake ; Mortimer Salsby made his most graceful bow, 
 and hoped the pleasure he had experienced to-night 
 might find many repetitions in the future leaving Ri 
 a little doubtful whether it would be safe to ascribe to 
 herself the origin of all his delight. Dick Waters 
 whispered, "Good night, darling," just at her ear; 
 and a dozen more adieus were made in varying fash 
 ion, and in every shade of cordiality. When the latest 
 guest was gone, weary Ri crept up to her room. So 
 phy sprang up the moment she softly opened the 
 door, and sleepily broke out, " Tell" me all about it, 
 and I ll help you undress," before she was well awake. 
 Then rubbing open her heavy eyes, she set herself at 
 work to disrobe Ri, while she half drowned her in 
 questions about every imaginable thing her fertile 
 brain could conceive. Ri finally dropped asleep amid 
 the wordy shower, and refused to rouse with any of 
 Sophy s mulgings. So the story of the great party 
 had to be deferred till some future day.
 
 CONSIDERATIONS. 97 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 CONSIDERATIONS. 
 
 winter passed swiftly, and for Noll and Eva 
 -- very quietly. They shared their work and pleas 
 ure at school, and both were very happy in the new and 
 delightful experience of a perfect sisterly companion 
 ship and affection. Eva felt that Noll could join her in 
 many things where her brother Charley could not; and 
 Noll rejoiced in finding, at last, a sister who was not 
 continually reproving her manners, and who, moreover, 
 as she tersely expressed it, "had sense." Sophy kept 
 herself in an unamiable excitement and discontented 
 fever by eagerly questioning Ri of all that happened 
 in her gay life. To Noll and Eva, Ri seemed as far 
 out of their world as Mrs. Meredith herself. Evening 
 after evening, Mrs. Meredith, with Ri and Jack, was 
 whirled away in her carriage, returning only in the 
 early hours of the morning. Then Ri, who was 
 always wakened by Sophy when she dressed for 
 school, to rehearse the events of the evening, was glad 
 7
 
 98 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 of a late extra nap, and seldom came down till long 
 after the girls were away at their lessons. When 
 school was done, and they returned, it was usually to 
 find Mrs. Meredith and Ri out in the carriage, either 
 shopping or calling among their fashionable acquaint 
 ances. It used to be the custom for the family to 
 meet at dinner. But this winter it had fallen into dis 
 use. Mr. Meredith was always punctually in his place 
 at the table, as were also Noll and Eva; but beyond 
 these the appearance of the nembers of the household 
 was very uncertain. Jack, who devoted his business 
 hours to the study of meclicine, was often detained by 
 some hospital case, or other important chance for in 
 struction. Mrs. Meredith and Ri generally dined 
 earlier, in order to give the dinner hour, with those 
 following, to their elaborate toilets; while Sophy 
 frequently dined with them, that she might be pres 
 ent and assist at those ceremonies. Poor Sophy was 
 racked with trying to live two lives. Forced to con 
 tinue at school, which had now no interest for her, 
 she half learned her lessons in a mechanical and spirit 
 less manner, while her heart was full of the bright 
 scenes of Ri s gay life, of which she heard and saw 
 just enough to whet her thirst for more. Ri s debut 
 was a great success. She was flattered and admired 
 to her heart s content; and more, even to the content 
 of her proud and ambitious mamma. When Mrs.
 
 CONSIDERATIONS. 99 
 
 Dana caller!, after the party, she inquired also for Eva. 
 Ri had forgotten to give her message; so the meeting 
 was a delightful surprise to Eva. They had a very 
 happy little talk about Eva s own dear mother. Mrs. 
 Dana could tell her many little events of her mother s 
 life that gave Eva pleasure to hear, while she, in re 
 turn, recited quite a little history of their life at Camp- 
 fields. Now the season of Le-nt was at hand. The 
 festivities of the winter were almost over. Mrs. Mere 
 dith attended a fashionable Episcopal church, and in 
 Lent never failed to go thither once a day, at least, 
 arrayed in her most becoming and costly robes. Her 
 piety saved her from a great deal of ennui, and atten 
 dance at church gave her, at this time, the one necessi 
 ty of her life, viz., something to dress for. 
 
 It was about the middle of Lent that Mr. Donaldson 
 asked Mr. Meredith s consent for his betrothal to Ri. 
 lie had not spoken to the young lady herself, but 
 deemed, according to European fashion, that her fa 
 ther s approval was all that would be required. Mr. 
 Meredith offered no objection if his daughter con 
 sented. Mr. Donaldson was an excellent man, and 
 from a prudent point of view, altogether desirable ; but 
 having lived a bachelor to the age of forty, he did not 
 find it easy to go courting a girl of eighteen. Seeing 
 that something in this line was expected of him, he 
 called upon Mrs. Meredith, and laid the matter before
 
 100 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 her, asking her aid and assistance in his favor, with the 
 little beauty whose company he wished to secure in 
 his lonely old Scotch castle. 
 
 " O, but, Mr. Donaldson, I could not think of letting 
 you carry off Ri to your dismal great castle, to stay 
 forever ! " exclaimed Mrs. Meredith, in well-feigned 
 alarm. " You must positively promise to bring her to 
 New York every winter." 
 
 "Perhaps, madam, you would prefer, sometimes, 
 spending a season with her ainong the Scotch High 
 lands. There is a great deal to interest one there." 
 
 " I do not doubt it. But it would be too dreadful 
 to me if I must think of Ri s going away where I 
 could not see her for a whole year." 
 
 "I thought that is, I hoped to spend next winter 
 in travelling through Europe, returning for the sum 
 mer to my own home in the Grampian Hills, where, I 
 am sure, from the pleasure your daughter has evinced 
 in what little I have been able to tell her of Scotch 
 scenery and customs, she will find much to interest 
 and delight her. And I hoped that, before the novelty 
 should be quite worn off, she would have found suffi 
 cient to fix her affections, and make my home also 
 home to her." 
 
 It was a kind, fatherly speech. Mrs. Meredith felt 
 that this man would be very good to Ri, and she re 
 solved to use all efforts to forward his suit. She
 
 CONSIDERATIONS. 101 
 
 promised him this, and Mr. Donaldson departed leav 
 ing his CQurtship entirely in the hands of this loving 
 mamrna, convinced that she would do for him better 
 than he could for himself. And she did. 
 
 " Ki, dear, we have had a proposal of marriage for 
 you, 4 began Mrs. Meredith, as they sat together. 
 
 " I don t want to be married yet. I ve only had one 
 season out, you know," replied Ri, bracing herself 
 against the announcement of Dick Waters name ; for 
 she could think of no one else who had shown her suf 
 ficient favor to warrant such a move. 
 
 " Your marriage would make no difference about 
 that. You could still appear in society in even better 
 position than you do now. I have stipiilated that you 
 shall not be mewed up out of the world." 
 
 " O, ma, who can it be ? " for Ri was sure no such 
 stipulation would have been deemed necessary with 
 Dick Waters. 
 
 " Why, don t you know ? Mr. Donaldson, to be 
 sure. Has he never, in any way, demonstrated his 
 feelings to you?" 
 
 " No, indeed ; nothing of that sort. He is dreadfully 
 old," faltered Ri. 
 
 " Not so very old. And he is a very good, kind man. 
 I consider it a very fortunate match for you." 
 
 " But I don t want to marry him," said Ri, decidedly. 
 
 " Do not speak too hastily, my dear. Let us have a
 
 102 EVA KOBEBTS EDUCATION. 
 
 little talk about it. You shall tell me all the reasons 
 you have against it, and I will tell you mine for it." 
 
 This seemed very fair, but Ri was silent. 
 
 " You say he is old ; bu-t I feel all the more willing 
 ness to intrust you to his care for that very reason ; 
 and twenty years difference becomes narrower as you 
 grow older." 
 
 "He doesn t live in New York," ventured Ri. 
 
 " No. That will be one of the delightful things in 
 the connection. He proposes to spend next year in 
 travelling through Europe with you ; then the summer 
 in his castle in the Highlands ; and he will bring you 
 . here to New York the following winter. Don t you 
 see? One season at the courts of Europe, and then 
 one here among your old friends, who will lionize you 
 half to death ! " And Mrs. Meredith paused, out of 
 breath, and beamed exultantly upon her daughter, as 
 if to be lionized half to death were a particularly de 
 sirable fate. 
 
 Ri seemed to think it so, too. She looked up with 
 brightened face, as she replied, half yielding, " % Yes, 
 that would be glorious." 
 
 "What s glorious?" asked Noll, dropping upon a 
 chair, and looking curiously into Ri s glowing face. 
 
 " I think Ri has so nearly decided that we may tell 
 you," said Mrs. Meredith, eager to announce a betroth 
 al, and considering Noll a safe hearer, even if it should 
 prove not quite a certainty.
 
 CONSIDERATIONS. 103 
 
 " I ve not decided indeed I ve not ! " cried Ri, her 
 face asssuming its troubled expression. 
 
 "What further objection can you urge? "said her 
 mother, with some show of vexation. 
 
 "O, I don t want to he isn t at all the sort of 
 man " 
 
 " What is it, Hi ? An offer ? " asked Noll, leaning for 
 ward with earnest face. 
 
 " Come, Noll, you are a sensible girl," began Mrs. 
 Meredith. " Call up some of your good sense to in 
 fluence your sister in favor of Mr. Donaldson. You 
 saw him when he dined here some weeks ago, after his 
 trip up the river with your father ; and you liked him, 
 I believe." 
 
 " Yes, I think he is a very good man, and I like him 
 very much," replied Noll. 
 
 "So do I, continued Mrs. Meredith. "Now cure 
 Hi of her foolish aversion to him." 
 
 " But I think just as Ri says, that he is not at all the 
 sort of man." 
 
 " Nonsense ! Why not, pray ? " 
 
 " I should think she would want some one younger," 
 bravely suggested Noll. 
 
 " That s just what I do," echoed Ri. 
 
 " It is a very natural feeling, I admit, my dear, at 
 your age. You are not yet over the romantic period." 
 
 "Now, ma, don t say that," broke in Noll. "I ll
 
 104 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 bear witness that there s not a particle of romance in 
 Hi. She wants to do all things in a proper and ra 
 tional way don t you, Ri ? " 
 
 "Certainly," replied Ri. 
 
 " 1 think it is the most proper and rational thing in 
 the world for her to want to marry a younger man," 
 boldly asseverated Noll. 
 
 " Well, Noll, I did suppose you had more practical 
 sense ! " returned her mother, testily. " Don t you see 
 that Mr. Donaldson is a certainty? He has proposed 
 for her, and a very good offer he makes, too. And 
 where is the probability, not to say certainty, of her 
 ever having so good a chance from a young man ? " 
 
 " Where is that Mortimer Salsby ? " suggested Noll, 
 meditatively, while Ri colored, and bent her head over 
 her work. 
 
 " He is not at all to be counted on," replied Mrs. 
 Meredith; "he has always shown Ri proper polite 
 ness and attention, but I arn sorry to say he has 
 made not the slightest advance toward a nearer ac 
 quaintance with her or the rest of the family." 
 
 " Well, perhaps he will, by and by," said Noll, con 
 solingly, seeing that she had hit upon Ri s chief 
 difficulty. 
 
 " I do not think it at all likely," said Mrs. Meredith ; 
 " and then, if he does not, Mr. Donalson is gone, past 
 recovery, and there is nothing so promising left."
 
 CONSIDERATIONS. 105 
 
 Xoll, not having any great experience in such mat 
 ters, and not being of a romantic turn herself, was fast 
 falling into her mother s exceedingly practical view of 
 the subject, taking for granted her underlying prem 
 ises that Pa must be married, and, of course, as well 
 and wealthily married as possible. 
 
 "You see how it is, Hi," pursued Mrs. Meredith. 
 " I know that Mr. Salsby would be personally, on some 
 accounts, more desirable ; but it so happens that you 
 must accept Mr. Donalson noic, or he is off to Europe, 
 and you may never see him again. As there seems 
 really no prospect of Mr. Salsby s Am I right, dear ? " 
 she broke off. " Perhaps you know more of his senti 
 ments and intentions than I do. Have you any intima 
 tions of success in that quarter?" 
 
 Poor Ri tried to hide her blushing face. "I only 
 thought," she faltered, "it would be so much pleas- 
 anter." 
 
 "I know; but what signs has he given, you?" 
 
 " O, not any, that I know of," she hurriedly repMed ; 
 "and I don t care particularly about him, any more 
 than Mr. Donaldson." 
 
 " That is as I supposed, my dear ; and so, since you 
 cannot have just what you might choose, it is best to 
 accept cheerfully the good fortune that Providence has 
 laid at your feet," concluded Mrs. Meredith, with a 
 pious air.
 
 106 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 "And, I suppose, beggars cannot be choosers," 
 added Noll, with a grave doubt in her usually merry 
 face. 
 
 " What a disgusting remark, Noll ! " exclaimed her 
 mother. 
 
 Noll rose, and slowly walked away, to repeat to 
 Eva the conversation, and get her opinion of it. Mrs. 
 Meredith, meanwhile, rapidly put down and overcame 
 all Ri s remaining feeble resistance to the proposed 
 alliance. 
 
 "What do you think of it, Evvy? Would you 
 marry an old man?" asked Noll, emphasizing her ques 
 tion by sundry taps iipon the open page of Eva s book, 
 with the heel of a rather slipshod slipper, that had come 
 off as she ran up stairs to the school-room. 
 
 " I don t know, I m sure," replied Eva, staring straight 
 through the window at the patch of cold, blue sky, 
 broken only by a queer chimney-pot on a neighbor 
 ing roof. 
 
 "f wouldn t marry any one I didn t want to not if 
 I was an old maid ! " and Noll twitched on her slipper, 
 sat down on the hearth-rug, and began gently punching 
 the coals in the grate with the poker. " Come, sit down 
 here by me, Evvy. I want to talk a bit." Eva laid 
 aside her book, and took a humble seat upon the rug 
 at Noll s side. "Truth is, I m all in a snarl," con 
 fessed Noll.
 
 CONSIDERATIONS. 107 
 
 "About what?" 
 
 "Why, this getting married. Ma set it all out so 
 sensibly, I couldn t help agreeing with her; and yet 
 I don t feel as though she had the right of it." 
 
 " I don t think I shall want to be married at all, if I 
 can only live with Charley, and help him." 
 
 "That s just what I used to think about Jack; but 
 you know we can t, for the boys will be getting married 
 themselves, and will not want us. Jack told me so 
 once, when I said I would live with him ; " and Noll 
 sighed a forsaken little sigh. 
 
 "Then you and I will go and live somewhere to 
 gether, Nolly, dear," said Eva, trying to smile with a 
 great lump in her throat, at the thought of Charley s 
 being married, and not wanting her to live with him. 
 
 " So we will, you darling sister Evvy ! " replied Noll, 
 catching Eva in her arms, and rolling her over upon, 
 the rug. 
 
 O 
 
 This frolic had grown rather noisy, when Jack 
 pushed open the school-room door. 
 
 " Here s a pretty scene ! " he exclaimed, as they 
 gathered themselves up, and he drew a chair before 
 the grate between them. 
 
 " Glad you ve come," gasped Noll. 
 
 " What were you up to ? " 
 
 " Only having a little roll, for fun," explained Eva. 
 
 " Evvy and I have agreed to live together always,
 
 108 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 after you and Charley are all married, so you don t 
 want us to live with you. We were celebrating the 
 contract our betrothal," laughed Noll. 
 
 " Some nice young men may object to that arrange 
 ment," said Jack, drawing one arm about Eva s shoul 
 ders, and reaching around Noll s neck, to pinch her 
 farther ear with the other hand. 
 
 " Don t care if they do ! " returned Noll, shaking her 
 head to free the captured ear. 
 
 " Noll and I don t want to be married," Eva said. 
 " Ah, you ll sing a different song a few years hence," 
 said Jack. 
 
 " Now, Jack, you seem to know all about it," began 
 Noll ; " do tell us what the reason is that there s always 
 such a fuss to get girls married off? Why can t they 
 marry or not, just as they choose, the same as men do? 
 Nobody thinks it so terribly necessary for men to be 
 married." 
 
 " Why, my dear little innocent, if a woman isn t 
 married, who is going to foot all her bills for millinery 
 and dry goods ? Who keeps a carriage for her? Who 
 supports a grand establishment, w r ith its retinue of 
 servants, for her to live, receive calls, and give parties 
 in? Don t you begin to see that a husband is a very 
 necessary article, as he is supposed to be the very 
 spring, the tap-root, of all these desirables?" 
 
 Noll regarded Jack in dubious askance ; Eva with 
 sorrowful, astonished blue eyes.
 
 CONSIDERATIONS. 109 
 
 "Is that all he is good for?" asked Noll. 
 
 " Bless you ! isn t that enough ? Sometimes he is 
 good for a trip to Europe, or elsewhei e ; sometimes he 
 isn t. It depends upon how valuable a specimen of 
 the .genus happens to fall into your net." 
 
 " I shouldn t think you would ever want to be 
 married, then," said Eva. 
 
 Jack laughed uneasily. " O, you see, we men are a 
 hopeful race. We are forever flattering ourselves that 
 our one particular case is going to be a happy excep 
 tion, and that our one particular fair lady is going to 
 marry from pure love of ourself, and not at all with a 
 view to the convenience of our bank account." 
 
 " Why don t you pretend to be poor, and then see 
 who would marry you?" was Noll s brilliant plan. 
 
 " That isn t always convenient, by a great deal. 
 But I came up here to tell you a little bit of news, 
 Noll ; and Eva must hear it, too." 
 
 " That s a dear Jack ! " and Noll climbed upon his 
 knee. "You do always tell me things before any one 
 else, and you always will, till you are married, won t 
 you, Jack ? " 
 
 " Yes ; you are a sensible sort of girl to talk with. 
 Come, Eva, you are another, and here is my other 
 knee for you ; " and Jack drew Eva up beside Noll. 
 
 "Now, what is it?" 
 
 " I ve been having a long talk with the doctor,
 
 110 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 to-day, about what I had better do with myself and 
 my profession. My course of study with him closes in 
 September. I ve about concluded to go west, and start 
 there. If I do, I shall go first to see your uncle Mar 
 ty n, Eva, and Charley." 
 
 Eva tightened her arm about his neck, but dropped 
 her head upon his shoulder. It was so long since last 
 July, and Charley s farewell ! Not one year had yet 
 passed, and how could she get through the whole five ? 
 
 " What is it, little girl ? Xot homesick are you ? " 
 
 "O, I do want to see Charley!" she moaned. 
 
 " I know ; of course you do. I thought I d tell you 
 of it in good season, and perhaps you would have 
 something ready that you would like to send out to 
 him by me." 
 
 " I ll tell you, Evvy. Make him a pair of slippers. 
 We ll go out and find the very loveliest pattern, and 
 you must work every stitch yourself, and have them 
 all made up for Jack to carry out to him," suggested 
 NolL 
 
 "I m afraid I don t know how," said Eva, a little 
 brightened by the plan. 
 
 "I do, and I ll show you. I ll make something to 
 send him, too. What shall it be ? And then we can 
 sit down, whenever we have spare hours, and work 
 together for him. Won t it be nice ? " 
 
 Eva was smiling through her tears.
 
 CONSIDERATIONS. Ill 
 
 "That s a capital idea, Noll!" said Jack, slapping 
 the folded hands in her lap. "You would be a real 
 comfort, if a body ever got into sorrowful times." 
 
 " O, yes, she is that already," cried Eva, encircling 
 Noll s neck with her other arm, and kissing her. "I 
 don t know how I should live if it wasn t for Noll. 
 She always has something kind to say when I am sad." 
 
 " So you get sad here sometimes ? " 
 
 " Everybody is very good to me ; but sometimes I 
 do want to see Charley." 
 
 "Poor little heart!" said Jack, as the dinner-bell 
 sounded, and the girls slid to their feet. He bent his 
 kind face over Eva s little figure, and kissed her in half 
 brotherly, half fatherly fashion, then took her hand in 
 his, and led her down to dinner.
 
 112 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 A TEIP TO CAMPFIELDS. 
 
 "HlVA came running up stairs to the school-room, 
 _ LJ one night, with joyous face and eager air. 
 
 "What now?" asked Noll. 
 
 "Mrs. Dana has been here, and she has- invited me 
 to ride out to Campfields for a Fourth of July holiday 
 with her." It was the first bright spot that had fallen 
 in her way since she came to her aunt Meredith s. 
 No one had thought, in the busy whirl of each selfish 
 life, to devise anything to cheer the monotonous days 
 of little Eva ; and truly it often seemed, as she had 
 said to Jack, that she could not have lived but for 
 Noll s cheerful friendship and sisterly tenderness. 
 
 "That s a pretty arrangement for me!" exclaimed 
 Noll. "What am I going to do without you?" 
 
 "Why I thought Nolly dear I didn t think 
 you would miss me. Aunt Matilda is going to have 
 company that day, you know. But I ll ask Mrs. Dana
 
 A TRIP TO CAMrriELDS. 113 
 
 to take you, too. There will be plenty of room in 
 the carriage, and I know she will be very willing 
 to do it." 
 
 "No, indeed ! Bless you, ./don t want to go riding 
 off to a little strange country town, where I don t 
 know anybody. I ve got a plan worth two of that. 
 I ll just announce to my excellent mamma that, 
 whereas you are going away to leave me in a 
 widowed condition, I shall claim the privilege of 
 presence in the drawing-rooms among her guests. 
 Sophy is to go down, and why shouldn t I? You 
 see it is to be a perfectly informal sort of family 
 .affair. Mr. Donaldson will be here of course, Dick 
 and Clara Waters, and Jack is going to try to rope in. 
 Mortimer Salsby, as a friend of his. you know;" and 
 Noll laughed gayly at the programme. 
 
 "Would you really enjoy that better?" 
 
 "Yes; I want to see this Mortimer Salsby, that I 
 have heard so much about. I wonder if he is as de 
 lightful as everybody seems to think." 
 
 Eva rode off with Mrs. Dana in a very happy mood, 
 aunt Matilda, far from objecting, having exhibited the 
 utmost indifference to the whole arrangement. The 
 morning was still fresh and comfortable, as they rolled 
 off the pavements and out upon the broad country 
 roads. The birds sang sweetly. The beautiful green 
 of the trees and meadows, newly washed by a recent
 
 114: EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 shower, refreshed their eyes, weary with the dust and 
 walls of the city. It was nearly twelve o clock when 
 they reached the little village, and Mrs. Dana ordered 
 the coachman to drive directly to the hotel, that they 
 might have a noonday meal, and rest themselves be 
 fore going out to visit Eva s old friends. A table was 
 spread for them in a private parlor, and the long ride 
 had furnished them with excellent appetites. The 
 dishes were cleared away. Mrs. Dana was reclining 
 upon the stiff, hard sofa, softened by the heavy shawl 
 she had brought for the evening ride home. Eva was 
 
 o o 
 
 curled up in an old-fashioned rocking-chair. A knock 
 was heard upon their door. 
 
 "It is Ferber, the footman," said Mrs. Dana. "I 
 told him to be ready to accompany us in our walk this 
 afternoon. Say we shall not want him till two 
 o clock;" for Eva had sprung up to open the door. 
 
 But it was not Ferber. A gray-haired old man 
 stood bowing, and flashing his long, gleaming, white 
 teeth, with sorry efforts at smiling, while he gently 
 rubbed his hands together. "I hope I do not disturb 
 the ladies. I only knocked to say that, if you wish 
 to see the beauties of Campfields, I will send a boy 
 with your servants, who knows all the places of inter 
 est hereabouts." 
 
 Eva had shrank away at sight of the familiar 
 though changed old face. Turning to Mrs. Dana,
 
 A TRIP TO CAMPFIELDS. 115 
 
 " It is " she was about to say Mr. Salsby ; but re 
 membering Mortimer s secret, she quickly added, " the 
 landlord." 
 
 "At your service, madam," he said, bowing politely 
 on the threshold, as Mrs. Dana raised herself. 
 
 " I thank you for your suggestion, but we are not 
 entire strangers here, and know perfectly well the 
 places we wish to visit," she said. 
 
 "O, ah! yes; I beg pardon" bowing himself 
 gradually off the threshold, with a sharp glance of 
 scrutiny from Mrs. Dana to Eva. 
 
 "Not at all." 
 
 "Ah, dear me! is it possible?" His keen, sly 
 eyes, suddenly recognizing Eva s unchanged face, 
 "Miss Roberts, I am most happy!" extending 
 his hand "to see you again in this "house, he 
 meant to say, but substituted " place " instead. 
 
 " I came with Mrs. Dana," said Eva, bowing dis 
 tantly, and pretending not to see his offered hand. 
 
 A weary look, as if accustomed to such rebuffs, 
 passed over the face of the bland old man, as he 
 withdrew his unaccepted hand, and, with another of 
 his galvanic smiles, continued, "And where is your 
 brother now, Miss Roberts?" 
 
 " In Chicago," replied Eva, edging away toward her 
 chair, and looking annoyed. 
 
 " 1 am sorry I have disturbed you," apologized old
 
 116 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 Mr. Salsby. " If I can be of any service, pray com 
 mand me." 
 
 Mrs. Dana bowed, and murmured thanks ; and, with 
 another flourishing obeisance and gentle rub of his 
 hands, he disappeared. 
 
 Eva crept into her rocking-chair in silence. Mrs. 
 Dana knew too much of the transactions between the 
 landlord of the hotel and the Roberts family to care to 
 allude to him, and for nearly an hour not a word 
 passed between them. 
 
 When Ferber, the footman, knocked, Mrs. Dana and 
 Eva quickly tied on their little summery hats, and 
 passed down the pleasant, and, to Eva, very familiar, 
 village street. But a stranger opened the door of the 
 beloved little cottage. Mr. and Mrs. Craig had moved 
 to rooms attached to the barber s shop. Mr. Dana 
 had not told his wife of this. It was the first and only 
 disappointment in Eva s happy holiday. She had 
 looked forward to finding James and Hannah just as 
 she had left them ; to seeing all the dear old house 
 hold furniture as it had been when the cottage was her 
 own loved home, and the presence of her mother and 
 Charley had made it the dearest spot on earth to her. 
 She began to realize how fast changes creep over 
 everything we have known. Back through the long, 
 shaded street they went, and rang the bell at the side 
 door of a building, the front half of whose lower story
 
 A TKIP TO CAMPFIELDS. 117 
 
 was decorated with a fine new barber s pole. Hannah 
 herself opened the door. 
 
 "O, it s little Eva, my own darlint child!" she cried, 
 bestowing a hearty kiss upon Eva s happy face. 
 
 "And this is Mrs. Dana," said Eva. 
 
 " How de do, ma am ? " said Hannah, courtesying 
 bashfully. 
 
 "I remember Hannah very well," said Mrs. Dana, 
 smiling. "You often brought Eva over to play with 
 my sister Minnie, and came for her again." 
 
 "Walk in ; come right in here," said Hannah, brisk 
 ly, opening the door into her darkened best parlor, and 
 loosening a blind. " I m just as glad to see you as can 
 be ! There s my baby ! She s waked up, and I ll 
 bring her right in here, so I can talk with you 
 whilst;" and Hannah disappeared in the direction 
 of certain faint wails, from some remote corner of the 
 building. 
 
 "I didn t know Hannah had a baby," said Eva, feel 
 ing that this pleasant change quite compensated for 
 others not so desirable. 
 
 " Here s the little queen," said Hannah, proudly, as 
 she returned with a white, dimpled baby, in suspicious 
 ly clean bib, and seated herself in a low rocker. 
 
 Eva was quickly kneeling at her side, exclaiming, 
 "What a little darling!" and administering various 
 taps upon the baby s pluinp cheeks, to instigate an
 
 118 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 infantile smile ; while Mrs. Dana went through the 
 regular cour.se of questions for such cases, beginning 
 with, " How old is she ? " When she hud politely 
 elicited the facts that baby was six months old, was 
 about ready to cut her first teeth, had always been 
 of a very amiable disposition, showed a passionate 
 admiration for everything red, and was not yet blessed 
 with a name, Eva suddenly became conscious that she 
 was making her call entirely upon baby, and had 
 scarcely spoken to Hannah. 
 
 "You have not told us why you moved from the 
 cottage," she said, stepping reluctantly back to her 
 chair, and bravely ignoring all baby s crowing and 
 smiling attractions. 
 
 "Well, now, Miss Eva, we were right sorry to do 
 that; and I ll tell you just how it would be coming 
 about," replied Hannah, sobering her joyful face, and 
 settling her baby on her lap. " It was last fall that 
 James got a bad cut in his right hand with a razor. 
 He had sharpened it to use, and had laid it up for a 
 moment, open, upon a little shelf over his table. Some 
 one came in, and slammed the door ; so down comes 
 the razor, and struck his hand a dreadful gash. He 
 couldn t use it again for a most three months, and had 
 to hire a man to shave all his customers. Then, what 
 with all sorts of things we had to be buying, and baby 
 coming along, James hadn t paid the last quarter s rent,
 
 A TP.IP TO CAMrFIELDS. 119 
 
 and the lease was up. We hadn t anything laid by, 
 and so James thought we had better live in cheaper 
 lodgings, if we weren t so genteel. The cottage wns 
 very elegant for such as us to live in. We thought 
 we d better be laying up something against a rainy 
 day, if we could do it, and only live comfortable, and 
 not think of bein stylish, you know." 
 
 " You seem very comfortable here," said Eva. " I 
 see you have the same old furniture. It must be easier 
 for James, too, living so near his shop." 
 
 " We couldn t afford to be buyin new furniture, 
 and we didn t want to, either, savin a few things we 
 came to need. Baby s got a fine rocking-crib and a 
 little carnage. We had to put a new shavin -chair 
 into the shop ; and the old cook-stove wore out, so we 
 had to get another, and that was an awful sum ! I ll 
 see if James can t leave to come and see ye. Men will 
 want to be shaved all sorts of days." 
 
 James was found quite idle in his little shop, not 
 withstanding Hannah s complacent words, implying a 
 rush of custom. He hastened toward the parlor, 
 throwing off his apron by the way, and took Eva s 
 hand with cordial grasp and shining face. 
 
 " It does my eart good to see the face of a Roberts 
 again ! " he exclaimed ; "and ow as the world treated 
 you, in that great hugly city of New York ? " 
 
 " Very fairly, I suppose. It is not so pleasant as 
 Campfields, nor so happy as my own home was."
 
 120 EVA KOBEETS EDUCATION. 
 
 "What news from Mr. Charley?" 
 
 "Only good news;" and Eva explained Charley s 
 business position. Many little events of interest were 
 recalled and related by each, and an hour had passed 
 away before they were aware. 
 
 As they rose to go, James slid shyly up to Eva, say 
 ing, " Miss Heva, would you elp us to find a name for 
 that child ? Annah and me ave been trying hall 
 these six months, and can t hagree on one." 
 
 ".O, may I name her?" cried Eva, joyfully. 
 
 "We d be so glad if you would!" said Hannah; 
 " and then we could think of you every time wo 
 called her." 
 
 "I ve been thinking, ever since you said she was not 
 named, that you ought to call her Nora, because she 
 has such bright, dark eyes, and such roguish dimples 
 in her cheeks." 
 
 " That s a very pretty name," said James. 
 
 " So I think. But shouldn t she have another to go 
 with it ? " rejoined Hannah. 
 
 " I didn t know there was any need of it," replied 
 Eva. "7" haven t any middle name." 
 
 " When she gets married, she can keep Craig for 
 her middle name," said Mrs. Dana. 
 
 "That she shall," returned James. 
 
 Out upon the street again, Ferber stalking solemnly 
 behind them, Mrs. Dana asked, " Whither next ? "
 
 A TKIP TO CAMPFIELDS. 121 
 
 " I must go to see Mrs. Gree ; and then, I think, per 
 haps, Mr. Beeler would like to hear from Charley." 
 
 " We certainly must not fail to see Mr. Beeler," re 
 plied Mrs. Dana, to whom Frank had given a graphic 
 description of the old grocery. 
 
 "And Mrs. Gree was very kind to us when mamma 
 died," said Eva, softly. 
 
 "Ah, Miss Eva, is it you?" exclaimed Mrs. Gree, as 
 she stepped to her open door, to meet the callers she 
 had seen approaching. 
 
 Eva introduced her friend in the cool little parlor; 
 and Lester Gree appeared in the kitchen doorway, his 
 hands not yet out of his pockets, his familiar giggle 
 agreeably quenched by his surprise. 
 
 " How do you do, Lester ? " said Eva, recognizing 
 him in spite of the straggling array of whiskers that he 
 was cultivating into an adornment of his large face, 
 and offering her hand. 
 
 The giggle had to come, and a blush with it, as he 
 drew his hand forth to take hers, and ejaculated 
 heartily, "How do ? Glad to see you." 
 
 "This is Mrs. Dana, Mr. Gree " 
 
 " How do ? " he repeated. 
 
 " She is Frank True s sister," Eva continued. " Do 
 you remember Frank True, who came out to see Char 
 ley two years ago ? " 
 
 " 0, yes, think I do. His father came with him, and
 
 122 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 had a talk with the old man, I remember. The old 
 man didn t want to let Roberts go. He had found out 
 his worth by that time." 
 
 "Lay off your bonnets, now </#, ladies," Mrs. Gree 
 was exclaiming, meanwhile, in a gush of happy hospi 
 tality. " You will be so much cooler ! Why, who is 
 that at the door? Lester, go and see." 
 
 "It is my footman. He will stop in the hall," ex 
 plained Mrs. Dana. "I wished him to accompany us 
 because Eva is going to take me to all sorts of woody 
 haunts that she and Charley used to visit, and I 
 thought we should be more comfortable with some 
 one in attendance." 
 
 " O, yes; ah, yes," replied the little lady, while Les 
 ter graciously placed a chair in the small and vacant 
 entry, and Ferber haughtily declined it, keeping his 
 stand in the doorway, hat in hand, and gazing idly 
 out upon the road. 
 
 Then followed the eager interchange of question 
 and reply whenever old friends meet. Mrs. Gree had 
 been very sick in the winter, and Lester had proved 
 himself, as his mother took pride in declaring, greatly 
 to his confusion, the very best of nurses, as well as 
 of sons. Lester hastened off upon another subject, to 
 tell Eva that Mr. Beeler had got on finely in the past 
 year, no more thieving, and he had chanced upon 
 a fortunate investment that had more than made good
 
 A TIUP TO CAMPFIELDS. 123 
 
 his former losses. Moreover, he had offered to take 
 Lester into partnership at the opening of the new year, 
 if the young man could produce one thousand dollars 
 to put into the business ; and Lester proudly informed 
 her that he knew where he could borrow that amount 
 with no security other than his note ; then his de 
 lighted giggle, aimed directly at his mother, showed 
 that she was to be his considerate banker for the neces 
 sary amount. Lester had bravely persisted in paying 
 his own way ever since his father died, and left Mrs. 
 Gree and her boy alone, and penniless, when he was 
 only fifteen. From his first meagre earnings at Mr. 
 Beeler s grocery he had paid to his mother a regular 
 weekly sum for his board, and limited all his other 
 expenses within the remainder of his wages. Thus, 
 though he had been able to save nothing himself, his 
 prudent mother, who had scrupulously laid by every 
 cent he paid her, brought forward, at this desirable 
 moment, all his hoarded board money for six years 
 past, amounting to a little over the requisite sum. 
 He would not receive it of her as his own, when she 
 wished him to do so, but took it as a loan, giving his 
 note, and insisting that he should pay interest on his 
 borrowed capital. 
 
 Eva was much interested in this little history, which 
 Lester^ told her in a low tone, interspersed with a wag 
 of his head, and his own inimitable giggle at all
 
 124 EVA .ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 emphatic or desirable points. As he concluded, Mrs. 
 Gree, who seemed to have had one ear pointed that 
 way all the time, while she talked with Mrs. Dana 
 on Campfield scenery and society, continued the sub 
 ject. 
 
 " Lester will always have everything done up in a 
 thoroughly business fashion. lie can t bear to have 
 money matters lying round loose, with no legal cer 
 tainty as to the real owner. I say the money is his; 
 but he won t own it, and is only willing to use it if I will 
 acknowledge it mine by holding his note and receiving 
 interest. I don t like to, when he is rny own son ; for, 
 dear me, it doesn t make any difference. It all goes 
 to him, any way, when I die; and what do I care if he 
 has it a few years sooner ?" 
 
 " I think your son has the right of it," said Mrs. 
 Dana. 
 
 " Thank you, ma am," interrupted Lester, gratefully. 
 It was evidently a much vexed question between them. 
 
 "It is an honorable and just arrangement," contin 
 ued Mrs. Dana. " A great many sorrowful things 
 happen for lack of exactly such strict adjustments of 
 money matters between members of a family." 
 
 " There couldn t anything happen to us," said Mrs. 
 Gree, uneasily, " for he is all I ve got." 
 
 We cannot tell what may befall us," returned Mrs. 
 Dana, gently and sadly. " I think Mr. Gree s method
 
 A TRIP TO CAMPFIELDS. 125 
 
 is a good one for both, of you. It supplies you with 
 an independent sum for the time when you may no 
 longer feel like working for your own support " 
 
 "Just what I thought just what I thought!" mur 
 mured Lester. 
 
 " O, I don t care for that. I shall never feel depen 
 dent as long as I live with Lester," said Mrs. Gree, with 
 a smile full of all possible maternal love and pride at 
 her boy. 
 
 " You might, years hence, if he should marry and 
 have a large family of his own to provide for," sug 
 gested Mrs. Dana; whereat Lester blushed furiously, 
 and Mrs. Gree looked very mournful. "And besides 
 the support and aid this may be to you, it is forming 
 a habit of business punctiliousness and thrifty prudence 
 for your son." 
 
 Mrs. Gree sighed. 
 
 " You see I cannot give you any sympathy," Mrs. 
 Dana continued, with a cheerful smile, "for I cannot 
 help thinking that you are very fortunate in your 
 financial affairs." 
 
 " O, I know that, I know that ; only sometimes I 
 can t bear to have Lester so dreadfully grown up that I 
 can t do anything for him now;" and the little woman 
 went and laid her hand upon the shoulder of her big 
 boy, and looked up into his face so yearningly, that 
 Lester put his arm about her still trim little figure, and
 
 126 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 said, " Why, mother, you wouldn t have me a baby 
 again would you?" 
 
 " Why, yes, sometimes." 
 
 " Of course you can t be tending a grown man as 
 you would a little fellow. It s always a blessed com 
 fort to have you here at home. There, don t make a 
 baby of me before the ladies," he pleaded, blushing 
 uncomfortably ; for his mother had got her arms about 
 his neck to kiss him, with two big tears in her eyes. 
 
 " Shall we have to go to Mr. Beeler s house to find 
 him to-day?" asked Eva. "I suppose the store is 
 closed." 
 
 "Yes, the store is closed; but I guess the old man 
 is in his office. I ll if that is might I walk 
 with you to the store and see if he is there? You 
 aren t, perhaps, much acquainted with Mrs. Beeler." 
 
 " Thank you," replied Eva ; " if you will take so 
 much trouble " 
 
 " It will be very acceptable," said Mrs. Dana, finish 
 ing Eva s incomplete sentence. 
 
 Lester entered the darkened grocery with his own 
 key, leaving the ladies at the door, and found Mr. Bee 
 ler busily posting his books and making out bills for 
 the morrow. Mr. Beeler came gladly out to meet 
 them, and conducted them through the store to his 
 little office. Lester sat down and had a pleasant 
 chat with Mrs. Dana, while Eva related to Mr. Beeler
 
 A TRIP TO CAMFFIELDS. 127 
 
 nil that Charley had told her of his business prospects 
 and experiences in Chicago. Eva was glad to observe 
 that Mr. Beeler had a contented and restful look in 
 his kind but resolute face; and he seemed much grati 
 fied that she had come to see him, and that Charley 
 had not forgotten to send him, a message in one of his 
 la.st letters. 
 
 Lester Gree bade them good by as he locked the 
 store door; and they started on to visit the little 
 wildwood bower, where Charley and Eva had held 
 two Fourth of July picnics. This they found quite 
 unaltered. Eva joyfully exhibited the very place 
 where uncle Martyn had pushed his head through the 
 barberry bushes, upon their grave discussion one year 
 ago. She gayly repeated the story to Mrs. Dana, who 
 was an interested listener to all Eva s happy reminis-, 
 cences throughout this pleasant holiday. Here Fer- 
 ber brought forward a basket he had been gravely 
 lugging about all this time, and Mrs. Dana took from 
 it a delicate little lunch she had brought, saying she 
 had intended to make a picnic somewhere, during the 
 day, but had not expected to find such a. desirable 
 place as this, and one already dedicated to the use, as 
 was this lovely retreat. Ferber silently swallowed his 
 portion of the repast just beyond uncle Martyn s bush, 
 and amused himself with slaughtering mosquitos mean 
 while. Perhaps he did not fancy the duties allotted
 
 128 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 to him to-day, but would have preferred loafing 
 about the bar-room with Rush, the coachman. At 
 any rate, he seemed to have something of a grave 
 nature weighing upon his mind. Mrs. Dana and Eva 
 took a short ramble through the pleasant green woods 
 after their lunch, grimly followed by Ferber. Then, 
 as the afternoon sun declined, they wandered idly back 
 to the hotel for an hour s rest and a cup of tea, before 
 Btartinor on their drive home. 
 
 ~ 
 
 " One more glass, I reckon," said Rush at the hotel 
 bar. 
 
 " See here ! " said Sam Sloper ; " you are the lady s 
 coachman ain t you ? " 
 
 "What s the hodds? I ll coachman you!" angrily 
 returned the other, already rather unsteady with 
 liquor. 
 
 "Reckon you will!" replied Sam, with a titter. 
 " But we don t want no more deaths laid to our door, 
 specially ladies ." 
 
 "What s that, Sam? What s that?" said Mr. Sals- 
 by, in the querulous tone now grown habitual, as he 
 entered the bar-room. "Don t be talking about that 
 to customers. It isn t a pleasant subject to them it 
 never is." 
 
 "This is the lady s coachman, sir, and I should say 
 he has got as much as he can carry, and drive safely," 
 said Sam, respectfully.
 
 A TEIP TO CAMPFIELDS. 129 
 
 " Ah, I see ! I see ! Now, my good fellow," and Mr. 
 Salsby laid a patronizing hand on the man s shoulder, 
 " suppose we put you up, for future consumption, a 
 quart or two of this very nice whiskey " 
 
 "Bah ! I take brandy," coolly suggested the coach 
 man. 
 
 " Yes ; well, brandy, then, for you to use as you 
 may seem to require it, instead of this one glass more 
 to-night. Wouldn t that be a more desirable arrange 
 ment?" 
 
 " Don t care if you do. Twouldn t come amiss 
 most hany time !" growled Rush. 
 
 A quart bottle was filled with excellent brandy, and 
 the half drunk coachman seemed utterly oblivious of 
 the difference in price between this and the single 
 glass he had ordered. lie threw down a wad of dirty 
 scrip, and pocketed the change in a state of glorious 
 ignorance as to the amount of it. Fcrber dragged him. 
 away, in the midst of his vociferous objections, to order 
 the horses and see that they were ready. Ferber him 
 self took a final survey of the harness, before he went 
 to announce to the ladies that the carriage was at the 
 door. 
 
 9
 
 130 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 RETURN. 
 
 " "\7~OTJ must drive a little faster than when we 
 J- came. I want to get home at nine," Mrs. Dana 
 said to the coachman, sitting unsteadily upon his high 
 perch, as Ferber closed the low door of the barouche 
 and lowered the sheltering top, which was quite un 
 necessary now that the sun was no longer oppressive. 
 Ferber climbed to his seat, and braced one firm shoul 
 der against the coachman. Rush shook the reins with 
 undecided motion, and the horses sped away right 
 merrily toward home. The sun was still above the 
 horizon, and the village clock was striking seven as 
 they rolled out of Campfields. They watched the soft 
 green country fields, listened to the chirp of the crick 
 ets and katydids, and saw with delight the brilliant 
 lines of the summer sunset go fading into the evening s 
 dusky shadows, till the sparkling stars came out. 
 When they could no longer distinguish the objects 
 around them, they leaned restfully back in the cush-
 
 EETUElSr. 131 
 
 ioned carriage, and talked of many things. Eva found 
 a pleasure she had not known since her mother s death 
 in telling all the difficulties of her daily life to some 
 one who could bring the sympathizing wisdom of 
 greater years to aid her. And so it came about, with 
 out any mention of Ri s betrothal as its cause, that 
 she repeated to her, as well as she could recall it, the 
 conversation she and Noll had held about marriage, 
 and Jack s rather unsatisfactory explanation. 
 
 "Do you think it is so?" asked Eva, with a troubled 
 face. "Must girls get married just to have some one 
 to pay their bills?" 
 
 Mrs. Dana almost laughed, but checked herself. "I 
 suppose, if girls run large bills, they must find some 
 way to settle them," she replied. 
 
 "But isn t there some other way?" 
 
 "I think a much better way would be not to require 
 so much. It will be better times when girls learn to 
 expect no more than they can provide for themselves. 
 That is what young men have to learn." 
 
 "And is that why nobody is in a hurry to marry off 
 boys ? " 
 
 "Not exactly though perhaps it is partly the rea 
 son. Boys are expected to be self-supporting and 
 independent more than self-supporting, as they must 
 also support their families when they become men. I 
 think it is rather a pity society does not also require 
 self-support and independence of girls."
 
 132 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 "You think girls ought to go to work and earn 
 money, as boys do?" 
 
 " Yes ; it would be better for all of us." 
 
 "I used to earn money to help Charley, when we 
 lived at Campfields. I always felt so happy when my 
 money came, and I could buy something we needed 
 with it! But now uncle Martyn sends me a hundred 
 dollars every quarter, besides paying my school bills; 
 so I really have more than I need." 
 
 " What do you do with your surplus wealth ? " 
 
 " 0, it is in a box in my trunk ; and I have lent some 
 of it to Sophy." 
 
 " You are saving it against some time when you will 
 need it more." 
 
 "No; I only put it there because I have nothing 
 else to do with it. Aunt Matilda does not think school 
 girls need to dress much ; so Noll and I don t trouble 
 our heads with buying handsome things. But please 
 tell me, how can I be self-supporting and indepen 
 dent?" 
 
 "You cannot; and it is not right that you should 
 be so now. While you are yet a child, and in school, 
 it is very proper and kind of your uncle to supply your 
 needs. But when your school days are ovei , and you 
 are fitted to take a place in the world as a young wo 
 man, then will be the time for you to endeavor to earn 
 your own support. Be independent, and then you will
 
 KETUKX. 133 
 
 never feel obliged to marry for some one to pay your 
 bills. Do you understand it, Eva?" 
 
 " I think so. Charley was independent at Camp- 
 fields, for he earned all he had, and some for us, too. 
 He is independent now ; but mamma and I never were 
 independent." 
 
 " Your mamma was in too feeble health for any con 
 tinued exertion. Besides, she was left, when a little 
 girl, with great wealth, by her grandfather, and so 
 never felt the need of any effort to supply her own 
 wants." 
 
 "I think I would rather earn my own money than 
 even to ask Charley for it." 
 
 " That is a good and self-reliant spirit. I am sure 
 you will be a brave little girl, Eva, when there is need 
 of it. We will talk more about this some time. I 
 want you to come and spend part of your vacation 
 with me. I am not going out of the city this summer, 
 and Minnie is to stay with me while mother visits some 
 relatives in the mountains. I should very much like 
 to have you both together, and I think it would not 
 be dull for you. Can you come ? " 
 
 " 0, yes. I think so." But then Eva s bright looks 
 faded. No ; I don t know." 
 
 "What is it?" 
 
 " Aunt Matilda is going to the Springs with cousin 
 Jack, Mr. Donaldson, Hi, and Sophy. They start day
 
 134 EVA EOBEKTS EDUCATION. 
 
 after to-morrow. If I went away, Xoll would have to 
 stay all alone." 
 
 "Cannot Noll come too? I am not acquainted 
 with her, hut I am sure, from what you say of her, she 
 would be a pleasant addition to the little party I am 
 planning." 
 
 "I don t know," said Eva, slowly. After XolFs un 
 complimentary refusal of the ride to Campfields, Eva 
 was by no means sure that she would like the proposed 
 visit any better. 
 
 The horses feet were clattering briskly over the 
 pavements now. Under cover of the darkness, Rush 
 had several times consulted the flask he had in his 
 pocket. Ferber had once or twice tried to take the 
 reins from him, as he rocked insecurely in his seat. 
 But Rush only swore at him, and, with drunken lurch, 
 gathered the lines into his hands again. Ferber did 
 not wish to alarm the ladies, and would not strive with 
 him. Rush leaned more and more heavily against the 
 footman s bracing shoulder. Ferber made one more 
 attempt to secure the reins, as the wheels grazed a 
 lamp-post; but the drunken man was still sensitive 
 about his driving, and growled out an oath so loud 
 and so gruff that Ferber shook in his shoes lest it 
 should reach Mrs. Dana s ears. It did, and caused her 
 to break off her conversation with Eva, that she might 
 watch her coachman more closely. Ferber observed
 
 RETURN. 135 
 
 the silence between them with anxiety. Whiz came 
 a carriage with which their wheels must certainly lock. 
 Ferber reached over and drew the off rein just in time 
 to turn aside and graze by the flying vehicle. 
 
 " I say, who s a-drivin this here team ? " growled 
 Rush, with an oath. 
 
 Ferber replied only by catching both reins to hold 
 back the horses from a coach that came dashing round 
 a corner near them. Rush resented this interference 
 with his province, though under his management there 
 must have been a dangerous collision, and commenced 
 a shower of blows and oaths upon Ferber s broad 
 shoulders and devoted head. Mrs. Dana sprang up to 
 stop this disgraceful scene upon the box, but receiving 
 one of Rush s rather promiscuous strokes full upon the 
 top of her bonnet, she sank back for a moment to her 
 seat. 
 
 " Shall I push him off, ma am ? " said Ferber over his 
 shoulder, as he sat unmoved and carefully guided the 
 horses, in spite of the pommelling he received. 
 
 " No ; I don t know," she replied. 
 
 " If it wasn t for the driving I could handle him, 
 and take him home quietly," said the man. "You 
 couldn t drive?" he asked, hesitatingly. 
 
 " No ; " she replied. 
 
 " I can," cried Eva. " Charley taught me." 
 
 "You aren t strong enough. Though the horses 
 aren t very gay now," replied Ferber.
 
 136 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 " I ll try it ; " and Eva stood upon the front scat of 
 the barouche, and took the reins that Ferber slipped 
 around by his left side to her, after bringing the horses 
 to a walk. Then, with one sudden and dexterous mo 
 tion, he caught both of Rush s arms, pinioned them at 
 his side, and laid him down upon the foot-board of the 
 driver s seat. 
 
 "Turn to the right," he said, as Eva now stood 
 bravely up, and held the reins with firm hands across 
 the heads of the two men. To the right she turned, 
 and the horses broke into their accustomed trot again. 
 
 "Careful," cautioned Ferber; "hold steady." 
 
 Eva did her best, and followed all Ferber s direc 
 tions. He crouched upon the foot-board, held down 
 the drunken Rush, who still had spasmodic attacks 
 of fighting, or trying to do so. Ten minutes more 
 brought them to Mrs. Dana s house, where the coach 
 man was walked oflTto the barn by a stable boy. Bid 
 ding Mrs. Dana an affectionate good night, with thanks 
 for the pleasure she had given her, Eva sat down in 
 the carriage, to be driven to aunt Matilda s by Ferber. 
 
 A footman stood guard at the front door, which was 
 left open that the cooler air of evening might freshen 
 the sultry drawing-rooms and stifled parlors. From 
 one of these rooms Eva heard the sound of merry 
 voices, and a low murmur hummed through the open 
 door of the library. As her light feet sped up the
 
 KETUKK. 137 
 
 stairs, Noll ran from the parlor, and followed to thein 
 room. 
 
 " Off with your things, Evvy ! I ll help you prink a 
 bit, and then you must come down. Such fun as it 
 is to see them manoeuvre ! Clara Waters and Sophy 
 have been beaming all their choicest prettinesses upon 
 the young Salsby. I declare I wouldn t have be 
 lieved Sophy could be so sweet and amiable ! Dick 
 has hung about Ri and Mr. Donaldson till that long- 
 suffering pair have withdrawn to the library in self- 
 defence ostensibly to study out routes of travel in 
 Europe ; and now I ve had him on my hands for half 
 an hour, and tossed him over to ma, while I came up 
 to you. Let me tie this watered blue ribbon round 
 your curls ; it will be lovely ! Jack has managed to 
 draw off Clara, and leave Salsby to Sophy. I m dying 
 to see what will be the next shift of the kaleidoscope, 
 when I bring you in among them." 
 
 "I don t think I want to go down. Ought I to go?" 
 broke off Eva, dropping the sleeves of the delicate 
 muslin that Noll had just thrown airily over her head, 
 without disarranging one of the glossy light curls. 
 
 " O, yes, indeed, you must! Haven t I told Dick 
 that you are coming ? " 
 
 " Dick can t be very desirous of seeing me." 
 
 "And I told Mr. Salsby so, too." 
 
 " I don t want to see Mr. Salsby, Noll. I saw his 
 father to-day."
 
 138 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION". 
 
 " Did you ? Well, how is the old gentleman ? " in 
 quired Noll, with mocking interest. 
 
 "He looks old and miserable, "Noll. I can t help 
 pitying him, though I dislike him more than I can 
 tell." 
 
 " Well, never mind about him, then, if you don t 
 like him. Where s the use of spoiling your counte 
 nance for the evening by dwelling upon unpleasant 
 subjects?" 
 
 "Why, Noll! you don t talk like yourself to-night." 
 
 "It s" my gay life of to-day, dear dissipation and 
 seeing society. It will wear off by to-morrow. Come, 
 now you are ready." 
 
 Eva was very pretty in the soft, cloud-like muslin, 
 tinged with blue, and her little face, yet paler with her 
 recent fright, set in its halo-like shower of golden curls. 
 Aunt Matilda half frowned as she saw her. * 
 
 "Tliis is my niece, Eva Roberts," she said; then 
 added, " Come here, darling, and tell me of your day s 
 excursion." Eva took the low seat near her aunt s 
 chair, and never dreamed of the tact that used a sem 
 blance of affectionate interest in her day s pleasure to 
 draw her away from the notice of the guests. Bivt 
 nothing could have more effectually roused the curiosi 
 ty of the listless and ennuied Mortimer, who under 
 stood the manoeuvre at once. Where had he heard 
 the name of Roberts before ? He could not recollect.
 
 KETUKN. 139 
 
 And that little figure with light curls 0, yes, that he 
 had seen at the interrupted wedding in St. James 
 Chapel last fall, and again, surely it was the same 
 face that had smiled at him -from Mr. Meredith s car 
 riage one year ago. He must have known a Roberts 
 at some former time, since this young Roberts girl 
 knew him; but where? and how much about him did 
 she know ? And while these questions busied his brain, 
 he still sat by Sophy, and talked glibly of the last new 
 novel and Saratoga. 
 
 "We ve got some capital new pictures of Jack, Mr. 
 Salsby;"and Noll planted herself, album in h.lnd, di-. 
 rectly under the chandelier. " At least, I think them 
 good, and he, vain boy, says they are libels. Come and 
 see this one that I have smuggled into this book, and 
 say what you think of it. Come, Evvy. I don t be 
 lieve you have ever seen them." 
 
 " Yes, I have ; Jack gave me one this morning," re 
 plied Eva, immovably. 
 
 So Noll s invitation, instead of drawing Eva and 
 Mr. Salsby together, as she had planned, brought So 
 phy, Dick, and Mrs. Meredith to inspect the interesting 
 photograph, which Jack had never shown to any one 
 but Noll and Eva. 
 
 Mortimer resigned the book to Mrs. Meredith, care 
 lessly remarking, over her shoulder, that "Jack s phiz 
 had a much better tout ensemble than that represented;"
 
 140 EVA BOBEKTS EDUCATION. 
 
 and then, Noll s project coinciding with his own incli 
 nations, he parried it out by slipping away to Dick s 
 vacant chair, near Eva. 
 
 "You said you had seen your cousin s picture. Do 
 you think it good ? " asked Mortimer. 
 
 "It is correct as he sometimes looks. I think it does 
 not give his best expression." 
 
 "Xo. I hardly knew how to find fault with it; but 
 you have said it exactly. It is very difficult to be al 
 ways in our best mood." 
 
 Eva did not know how to answer this psychologi 
 cal statement, and so wisely held her peace. 
 
 "You have been on an excursion to-day. Into the 
 country ? " he resumed. 
 
 "Yes, to Campfields." Eva gave this definite an 
 swer, because it seemed the plainest and simplest, for 
 getting at the moment that her companion might not 
 be pleasantly reminded of Campfields. She was sorry 
 as she saw the color flush suddenly over his handsome 
 face. 
 
 "Are you acquainted there?" he continued, in a 
 tone of studied indifference. 
 
 " Yes, a little." 
 
 "I have some connections there of the same name. 
 Do you know them?" He was determined to learn 
 how much she knew of himself. 
 
 Eva read his intent, and replied to it in her clear, 
 direct tone. "I saw your father to-day."
 
 RETURN. 141 
 
 Mortimer was silent so many minutes, sitting, turned 
 towards her, upon his chair, with his elbow on its back, 
 and his face half hidden in his hand, that Eva, regret 
 ting she had touched this sore spot in his history, 
 longed to slip away and leave him alone till the pain 
 should have passed. At length he spoke hurriedly. 
 
 " Yes ; and how is he the old man ? " 
 
 "Mr. Salsby didn t seem in feeble health, but he 
 looked very miserable." 
 
 " Ah, yes ; I suppose so. But it wasn t my fault. I 
 did not know what practices the old man was up to. 
 I remember all about you, now, Miss Roberts. Your 
 brother was in business in Campfields." 
 
 " He worked for Mr. Beeler." 
 
 " I met him in the grocery, and liked him. He is a 
 real man, every inch, and will get on. I remember 
 a discussion I had with him on the efficacy of aspira 
 tion versus natural status. I do not recall the exact 
 drift of the argument now, only I am dimly conscious 
 that I found myself beaten." 
 
 Eva was wondering if Charley talked on such meta 
 physical subjects in Mr. Beeler s old grocery, and she 
 had no reply ready. 
 
 "Wliere is your brother now?" 
 
 "In Chicago." 
 
 "In business there?" 
 
 "Yes; in a publishing house."
 
 142 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 "I am glad to hear he is doing well. Your stars 
 have talcen a lucky turn lately." 
 
 "I do not understand." 
 
 " You are both in much happier surroundings than 
 in Campfields." 
 
 "O, no," she cried, a piteous grief springing into 
 every feature of her sensitive little face. 
 
 " Forgive me," he said, gently. " I thought it must 
 be a pleasanter state of affairs to live in this beautiful 
 house in the city, and to know that your brother is in 
 a good position, than to live in that cramped little cot 
 tage in the country, and submit to the various incon 
 veniences that would accompany that mode of life;" 
 and Mortimer thought he had made a very delicate 
 hint at poverty. 
 
 " I used to be very happy here when I was a little 
 girl. This was my mamma s house, and we were all 
 together. I know now that it is better for us as it is, 
 and am very thankful for the advantages we both are 
 receiving. Of course we don t have to work so hard 
 as at Campfields ; but there mother and Charley and I 
 were together. How can it be happier now that moth 
 er is gone, and Charley and I are so far apart ? " and a 
 little sob would come at the end, spite of all Eva s 
 efforts at a steady face and voice. 
 
 Mortimer s " best mood " came uppermost as he lis 
 tened to Eva s sad little story. The usual glib smooth-
 
 RETURN. 143 
 
 ness died out of his voice, and it was deep, manly, and 
 tender, as he said, " At least, Miss Eva, there is no 
 shame spot in your family for you to look back upon." 
 
 Eva remembered her father s weakness for appro 
 priating all the hard earnings of her mother and her 
 self, and replied, gently and sadly, " There are some 
 tilings not pleasant to remember for every one, I sup 
 pose." 
 
 Mortimer colored, recalling too late the rumors he 
 had nearly forgotten of Mr. Roberts disgraceful death. 
 "I need not surely ask you to help me keep the un 
 happy secret of my family !" he murmured amid his 
 long unused confusion. 
 
 " Only Xoll and I know it. We have kept it for you* 
 so far. You must trust us to do right by you in the 
 future," was Eva s grave reply. 
 
 Mrs. Meredith brought a chair and sat down before 
 them. This ttte a tcte must be broken up. She could 
 not imagine what they had found so deeply interesting 
 to talk about. 
 
 "I want to ask of you, Mr. Salsby, a great favor. 
 Jack and I were speaking of some little preparations for 
 my dear girl s wedding. It is to take place in Septem 
 ber, as soon as practicable after our return from the 
 Springs. Mr. Donaldson has no intimate friends in 
 this city, and he has asked us to secure the services of 
 some of ours for groomsmen. I hope it is not presum-
 
 144 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 ing too much upon your good nature to count you as 
 one of them." 
 
 " Ah, I thank you," stammered Mortimer " for 
 the honor." 
 
 "The honor is ours. Then we may depend upon 
 you?" 
 
 "I know of nothing now to prevent," replied he, 
 with his most winning smile; but he thought, "I ll 
 find something to prevent if I am expected to play 
 gallant to that next daughter." 
 
 _ " Are you to be among the bridesmaids ? " he asked, 
 turning again to Eva. 
 
 Mrs. Meredith walked away, in despair of separating 
 them, to request the same favor of Dick Waters. 
 
 "Yes; Sophy, Noll, and I, and Jack is to be one of 
 the groomsmen." 
 
 " Beyond my duties to the bridegroom, may I hope 
 to be allowed the pleasure of attending you ? " he asked 
 in his most airy and elegant fashion. 
 
 "I m to be with Jack," replied Eva, half frightened 
 at the mere thought of being apportioned as the com 
 panion of Mr. Salsby. Jack had won her consent to 
 be bridesmaid, that very morning, only by the promise 
 of his own exclusive attention. 
 
 "What s that about Jack?" asked Noll, drawing 
 near. 
 
 "Only that he has promised to stand with me at 
 Hi s wedding.
 
 KETUK3ST. 
 
 145 
 
 "That leaves Mr. Salsby to you," said Dick to Noll; 
 "for I shall stand with Sophy." 
 
 "Who told you so?" snapped Sophy. 
 
 " I knew you couldn t refuse," returned Dick, with a 
 covert sneer. 
 
 " I accept the position with pleasure," said Mortimer. 
 
 "But I don t !" exclaimed Noll. "I wonder what 
 Jack means by leaving me to shift for myself in this 
 way. Jack belongs to me." 
 
 "You certainly need not shift for yourself. I will 
 clo all in my power to make your position a pleasant 
 one, replied Mortimer, feeling, perhaps for the first 
 time in his life, the chagrin of not finding himself the 
 most desirable person in the world. 
 
 " O, you are very good," Noll said, her good nature 
 quickly rallying. "I m sure I couldn t wish for better 
 company, except Jack." 
 
 Meanwhile, a little apart, Sophy hissed out, in reply 
 to Dick s impudence, "I can refuse, and I ll be sick 
 the day of the wedding before I ll stand up with 
 you." 
 
 " No, you won t," muttered Dick, staring boldly into 
 Sophy s angry face with his wicked black eyes. Then 
 lie added, yet lower, "I never told Salsby yet that you 
 were the little fool who thought I was going to risk 
 breaking my neck to marry you." Dick took a confi 
 dential attitude beside Sophy, and looked across the 
 10
 
 146 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 room before he brought his eyes back to her white face. 
 " Are you going to stand with me ? " he aslced. 
 
 " I suppose I shall have to," gasped Sophy, choking 
 with fear, shame, and rage. 
 
 " Yes, you will have to," Dick coolly agreed. " Your 
 place will be next Ri ; and that is where I want to be. 
 Therefore we stand together." And Dick, having care 
 fully explained his position, walked away to tell Mrs. 
 Meredith that her daughter Sophy had done him the 
 honor to allow him the place at her side for the wed 
 ding. 
 
 Mrs. Meredith had fully intended that for Mr. Sals- 
 by but as Jack had promised to stand with Eva, she 
 was sure of Mr. Salsby for Noll, and therewith rested 
 content. 
 
 The Meredith party went forth from the dusty city 
 on its tour of summer pleasures two days later, as had 
 been planned. Only Noll and Eva were left in the 
 great house.
 
 MINXIE TRUE. 147 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 MINNIE TRUE. 
 
 many days after the departure of the Mere- 
 dith family, Noll and Eva were driven away to 
 spend a few weeks at Mrs. Dana s house. Minnie 
 True met them at the door, with her bright face all 
 smiles and dimples. Noll thought her enterprising 
 little pug nose seemed lifted on purpose for kisses, and 
 she acted upon the fancy by quickly bestowing a salute 
 upon its very tip. Minnie drew back, surprised at this 
 novel greeting, and looked up eagerly into Noll s mer 
 ry face. Then, satisfied with her investigations, she 
 kissed Noll heartily, saying, "I like you." She then 
 led them to the room that had been prepared for them, 
 assisted in laying aside their hats, and rearranging their 
 toilets before going down to Mrs. Dana, Eva could 
 not help feeling, as her eyes glanced about the cham 
 ber, and along the hall, and again in the pleasant, cool 
 little parlor, where Mrs. Dana sat busy with some fine 
 sewing, a something in the general air and fashion of
 
 148 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 the house tlint reminded her of her own mother s 
 home a something that had never touched her in 
 all aunt Matilda s grand and elegant furnishings. Per 
 haps the lack of it was the very reason why she could 
 never make the house where her early childhood had 
 been spent seem like home to her again. 
 
 Minnie had caught up from a basket a long strip of 
 delicate lace-like texture, and her small fingers were 
 giving magical impulses to an obedient little black shut 
 tle, that flew in and out among loose, intricate threads, 
 in a sagacious manner, quite confusing to Eva s slight 
 acquaintance with tatting. Mrs. Dana was asking all 
 manner of kindly questions about every subject likely 
 to interest them. But Eva could not keep her eyes 
 from watching, and her heart from envying, Minnie s 
 deft fingers and wise shuttle, that went always just 
 right, and never tripped; while she was also distantly 
 admiring the beautiful result of all this swift precision. 
 She moved to a seat beside Minnie, and took up the 
 end of the long strip of lace, saying, with a sigh, " O 
 I wish I could make tatting like this ! " 
 
 "Don t look at that end!" cried Minnie, offering the 
 work under her hands. " That is where I began, and 
 it is uneven and dirty now." 
 
 " This is more beautiful yet! " said Eva, lost in hope 
 less admiration at the fine, even rounds, snow-white, 
 and laced together with firm bars of the same work.
 
 MINNIE TKTJE. 149 
 
 " I never could do it. I had such a fearfully hard time 
 learning the mere stitch ! I nearly wore out Hi s pa 
 tience, and she has a great deal." 
 
 " O, if you have learned the stitch, the rest is easy 
 enough," said Minnie. " It s the first stitch that costs. 
 I can show you how all this pattern is worked up any 
 day while you are here. Then, after a little practice, 
 you will do it as well as I, or better." 
 
 "I am afraid it would take me a long time." 
 
 "I think I should like to do that sort of work," said 
 Noll, who had drawn near to look at the lace, and 
 watch the flying fingers and shuttle. " It must be 
 very easy." 
 
 " Why, don t you remember, Noll, how you used to 
 say, last winter, that nothing would tempt you to learn 
 anything that was as hard as I found tatting?" 
 
 " Yes ; but Minnie does it so easily, that I am in 
 clined to think, my dear Evvy, that you must have 
 been unusually stupid." 
 
 " Come and prove it then," cried Minnie, eagerly. 
 " There is no time like now. I will be your teacher, 
 and let us see if you will learn any easier than Eva 
 did." 
 
 Minnie produced a little white shuttle from her 
 work-basket, and was rapidly filling it from a spool. 
 
 "I suppose it isn t any harder with white shuttles 
 than with black ones?" Noll suggested. "I remem 
 ber that Eva had a white one."
 
 150 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 Minnie laughed. "White ones are prettier, and 
 generally either very thin and frail, or very thick and 
 clumsy. The black ones have service in them. This 
 is a cunning little thing that Frank brought home to 
 me. It is too pretty to spoil, as I certainly should if I 
 carried it about in my pocket with my work." 
 
 " Carry work in your pocket ! " cried Noll. " Pray, 
 what for?" 
 
 " To have it handy, to be sure. I accomplish a good 
 deal by using my odd minutes." 
 
 "What an industrious little puss you are!" said 
 Noll, arranging the thread on her long, awkward 
 fingers, as Minnie taught. " I used to think Eva was 
 a tiresome bee. She mends all her own clothes, and 
 often makes some of them, just to have something to 
 do, she says." 
 
 "Why shouldn t she?" put in Mrs. Dana. 
 
 Noll looked up in surprise. " I thought, why should 
 she, rather, when she has a larger allowance than she 
 spends, and there is not the least need of it." 
 
 "It is better to do even unnecessary work than to 
 be idle," replied Mrs. Dana. " Work completed is al 
 ways a satisfaction." 
 
 " I m afraid I d rather be idle," replied truthful Noll, 
 with a blush, feeling, for the first time in her life, 
 ashamed of her lazy habits, delicious day-dreams, and 
 wasted hours. " My thread won t slip, like yours," she 
 added to Minnie.
 
 MINNIE TKUE. 151 
 
 "Ah, you have been tying knots with the wrong 
 thread! I told you to make all the knots with the 
 upper thread, then the other will slip through them. 
 There ! begin again ; " and Minnie snapped off the 
 abortive round, and gave the fresh end into Noll s 
 fingers. 
 
 " But don t you think, Mary " and Eva stopped, 
 frightened ; for the home-feeling, and the presence of 
 Minnie and Mary True, had made her forget for the 
 moment, and brought the old girlish name to her lips 
 again. 
 
 "Never mind," said Mrs. Dana; "call me Mary, if it t 
 still seems natural to you, as it must while you are here 
 with Minnie and me. And, at any rate, let me hear 
 what you were going to say." 
 
 "Don t you think necessary work is a great deal 
 more satisfactory and pleasant than what is unneces 
 sary?" 
 
 " We should hardly feel like working at what we 
 considered unnecessary. In one sense, all work is 
 necessary needful to the gratification of some desire. 
 There is work unavoidable in order to sustain life itself, 
 that earns for the poor their daily bread. And there 
 is work that seems equally necessary to those whose 
 life is not so hard and barren of pleasure, and who 
 recognize other wants springing from the refinements 
 of civilization. To us it is a necessity that our food be
 
 152 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 temptingly prepared, cmr clothing clean and neat, and 
 there is a great deal of needful work accordingly. 
 But the savage, who recognizes no such absurd, 
 necessities, saves a deal of labor by his less cultured 
 tastes." 
 
 " I cannot quite think that all labor is needful," said 
 Eva, while Noll snapped off her third failure, and be 
 gan again. "What is the use of having one s night 
 gowns ruffled all around, and from top to bottom? It 
 is a great deal of work." Eva was recalling some of 
 the needle wonders of Hi s trousseau, over which she 
 knew Mrs. Meredith s seamstress was bending, through 
 all these hot summer dayg. 
 
 " I am glad you do not quite yield to my statement. 
 And now I must show you another side of the matter. 
 I said every kind of work is created by a demand for 
 it, in order to gratify some human desire. But there 
 is a great difference in the importance, purity, 
 and nobleness of our desires. It should be our en 
 deavor to choose such work as will gratify and stimu 
 late our holier feelings and inclinations." 
 
 " And isn t all this time, thought, and money spent 
 upon dress an awful waste ? " asked Noll. 
 
 "It often is, though it may not be always so. A 
 portion of every one s time, thought, and money must 
 be devoted to dress. It is for each to judge for her 
 self how much she is justified in giving to this part 
 of life."
 
 MINNIE TKUE. 153 
 
 Eva had pushed a cricket to Mrs. Dana s feet, and 
 dropped her shower of curls over her lap. "What 
 is it, Eva dear?" and Mary Dana s gentle face bent 
 over her. 
 
 " Only that you, and everything here, remind me 
 so of mother and home. You always seemed to me 
 like my mother." 
 
 Mary kissed her fair forehead, and said, kindly, "I 
 hope it is pleasant for you here." 
 
 "O, yes, indeed! It is just like heaven." 
 
 " Heaven, Eva ! What do you mean ? " she asked. 
 
 Noll spitefully bit off her sixth blunder, and mut 
 tered, " Pshaw ! " Minnie came to her assistance with 
 renewed directions. 
 
 Eva whispered softly, " Only that since mother and 
 Charley are gone, everything seems strange and cold 
 to me, as if I were in a foreign country, and didn t 
 know the language. Sometimes I am afraid I ll never 
 find home again, till I go to mamma in heaven. No 
 one understands me, nor I any one else. Not even 
 Jack and Noll, though they are very good and kind to 
 me. I feel so lonesome with everybody!" and Eva s 
 eyes had a far-away look, as she sat with her arms 
 across Mrs. Dana s lap. 
 
 " I think we all get a little lost among our friends 
 sometimes," she replied. 
 
 The dinner bell rang before Eva left her place, or
 
 154 EVA BOBEKTS EDUCATION. 
 
 Noll made a successful round. They had not heard 
 the hall door open, and a quick step strike the stair. 
 So, when they had reached the dining-room, it was a 
 grand surprise to hear Frank s voice, and find him- 
 there before them. Noll made a stately bow on being 
 presented. She had obtained a very high opinion of 
 Frank True from Eva s fragmentary remarks concern 
 ing him. Eva blushed as she remembered their meet 
 ing in St. James Chapel, but greeted him with a 
 genuine welcome, that did not think of objecting to 
 the brotherly kiss he had given her, as well as Min 
 nie, from her earliest remembrance. Frank, grown 
 older with his eighteen years, but yet not quite so wise 
 as he might have been, marked the flitting blush, mis 
 understood it, and thought, with a tugging at his heart, 
 " She is growing up, and by and by she will be coming 
 out and looking for a husband, as other girls do. I 
 suppose I must not kiss her any more." 
 
 Frank had given up his intended summer trip, and 
 returned to the city to remain until his college term 
 reopened. The reason for his sudden change of pro 
 gramme he did not give till alone with his sister Mary 
 scarcity of funds. He had found his mother setting 
 out upon her country visit with far too slim a purse for 
 her comfort and pleasure. He had forced her to use 
 what had been set apart for himself; and now he was 
 quite compensated, he gayly announced, by finding
 
 MINNIE TRUE. 155 
 
 that his good fates had made him one of this very 
 select and recherche party of fair ladies, than whom he 
 could not have chosen more desirable ones from his 
 entire circle of acquaintances, which, by the way, was 
 anything but extensive. > 
 
 "What will you do to-day?" asked Mrs. Dana, as 
 the girls rose from the breakfast table next morning. 
 
 "I suppose we shall hardly want to go out in this 
 heat, unless we have something very well worth going 
 for," said Minnie, looking interrogatively at her guests. 
 
 Both the girls concurred in this opinion. 
 
 "Then how shall we amuse ourselves?" said Minnie. 
 " There is a croquet-table in the upper hall. Do you 
 like croquet?" 
 
 Noll was silent, and Eva replied, politely, " Pretty 
 well." 
 
 " Truth is," Noll broke out, " we got dreadfully tired 
 of knocking those little balls at school. Madame Van- 
 rie set up a table, because it was a fashionable game, 
 and used to keep a full set of us girls at play there, in 
 all our leisure hours, to put us in practice." 
 
 " O, dear ! " laughed Minnie ; " I don t wonder you 
 were tired of it." 
 
 "I d rather play home than anything else," said 
 Eva. "What should you do if we were not here? 
 Can t we do it with you ? Then it will be just like 
 at home. "
 
 156 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 The words did not have the same significance to 
 Noll that Eva assigned to them. Noll waited to learn 
 what magic interpretation should transform them into 
 something to be so particularly desired. 
 
 Minnie understood Eva, but she also observed Noll s 
 blank face. "I am afraid you would not find much 
 enjoyment in my way of being at home," she replied. 
 "It does very well when one really is at home, and is 
 eager to get on with work and study ; but it isn t so 
 good for entertainment when one is away on a 
 visit." 
 
 "But tell us what it is," said Noll, tucking up one 
 foot upon an ottoman before sitting down, in the pleas 
 ant and cool western-looking library, whither Minnie 
 had led them. Mrs. Dana was busy superintending 
 her household, and Frank had vanished from the 
 breakfast-room as soon as the meal was ended. So 
 the three girls disposed themselves easily and comforta 
 bly for a lazy chat. " I should like to know how you 
 live at home," continued Noll, " because everything 
 seems somehow different from what it does at our 
 house, and yet I can t tell exactly how or why ; " and 
 Noll s puckered forehead and puzzled face would have 
 been a study for a physiognomist. 
 
 "But you know this is sister Mary s home, and not 
 mine." 
 
 " So it is; I forgot. But isn t it very like yours?"
 
 MINNIE TRUE. 157 
 
 "Yes, somewhat, because Mary is like mother. 
 When I am at home," Minnie slowly continued, after 
 a pause, "I have my work before me, and I just keep 
 right along with it." 
 
 " You mean, by work, your school work ? " 
 
 "Yes, and a good many things beside." 
 
 "I know; you are a bee, like Eva." 
 
 Minnie laughed. " I never was so classified among 
 entomological specimens before, and don t lay claim to 
 the honor now." 
 
 "Dear me!" and Noll got off her ottoman, and 
 went peering about the book-cases. 
 
 " What are you looking for ? " asked Minnie. 
 
 " Webster s Unabridged. I m an ignoramus, I know, 
 but I never did hear that word before." 
 
 Minnie blushed that she should have brought her 
 guest to confusion, and said, meekly, " I am sorry I 
 used it, then ; but there really isn t any other one that 
 has the same meaning;" as she laid the great volume 
 upon a desk before Noll. 
 
 " I m glad you used it. You have become the un 
 conscious means of enlarging my vocabulary to the 
 extent of six syllables, and I am grateful just in pro 
 portion to the length of the word. I revel in long 
 words, only I like to be sure I am fully acquainted 
 with their various shades of meaning." 
 
 " There are no shades of meaning to this one," said
 
 158 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 Minnie. " It is as solid and sharp as steel ; made for 
 use, and not for beauty, like all technical terms." 
 
 "Here it is! Pertaining to the science of insects. 
 No two meanings to that ; " and Noll replaced the 
 dictionary, and resumed her seat. " You were going 
 to tell me what you work at, besides your school- 
 books." 
 
 " Well, there is my music." 
 
 " I count that among my school studies. Of course 
 we all take turns at hammering the piano poor tor 
 tured temple of tones ! I am glad pianos have no ears 
 to hear the sounds learners draw from them, nor 
 hearts to feel the jar of discords." 
 
 " I m sure you never torture yours. You speak so 
 feelingly of it, as if you loved it," said Minnie, her 
 face lighting up with the interest of a real musician. 
 
 "You are greatly mistaken there. I am the very 
 worst hand at the piano in the whole family." 
 
 " How can that be when you love it ? " 
 
 " Can t you love poetry without being a poet, and 
 music without being a musician ? O, I can dream such 
 beautiful music in my head ! but when I try to make it 
 alive and real such bungling! Whatever spirit of 
 music there is in me was born hopelessly dumb. Still, 
 I practise, because ma says it is necessary to my educa 
 tion. But everything I try to play is terribly unsatis 
 factory, and leaves me well, hungry ! "
 
 MINNIE TRUE. 159 
 
 "They tell me music is my forte," said Minnie, 
 modestly; "so I am studying that as a specialty, with 
 my school lessons, that I may make myself useful by 
 it some time." 
 
 " I should think," said Noll, after a little reflection, 
 " it would be very invigorating to have a specialty." 
 
 "It is," replied Minnie. "It makes you feel that 
 you have a plan of work, perhaps for your whole life, 
 before you. Of course it will be subject to all sorts of 
 modifications as you go on. I only know that music is 
 my specialty; whether I shall teach it, compose it, or 
 express it, I neither know nor care. That will decide 
 itself at the right time. Meanwhile I can study with 
 a fixed purpose, and perfect myself in that one branch 
 of art. When something points to one of those three 
 branches of my study, as most fit or useful, I suppose I 
 shall follow in that direction." 
 
 "What do you mean by expressing it?" 
 
 "As an artist a musical artist; but I do not flat 
 ter myself that I have any great talent in that direc 
 tion." 
 
 "Like Patti or Parepa?" 
 
 " Like Gottschalk, Ole Bull, or Camilla Urso," said 
 Minnie, laughing and flushing. 
 
 " Did you ever learn the violin ? " 
 
 " I am studying it now. I like it better than the 
 piano."
 
 100 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 Eva came down from a chair, on which she had 
 mounted to examine some books on a high shelf, and 
 joined the conversation. " Noll has asked questions 
 enough for a while. It is my turn now. I wish, Min 
 nie, you would tell us just how you pass a day when 
 you are at home." 
 
 "It is very little to tell," said Minnie. " I generally 
 take two hours for the piano before school. My school 
 hours are only from nine till one ; so I get t\vo more 
 hours, from two till four, for the violin. Then, if I have 
 any school lessons to prepare at home, I do that next; 
 and when all my study is over for the day, I go to 
 mother. Sometimes I read to her, and sometimes we 
 only chat ; but then I have my sewing or tatting. 
 She always has her work. After dinner, I have an 
 evening till nine; and now that I am fifteen, I shall 
 sit up till ten, when we are at home again. Evenings 
 I do just what I choose play and sing to mother, 
 read, or sew. That is all." 
 
 " I wish we could do so," said Noll, who was begin 
 ning to appreciate Eva s enthusiasm for home. 
 
 " We tiun t accomplish much," sighed Eva. 
 
 "What school is it where you have such hours?" 
 Noll asked, suddenly. 
 
 Minnie gave the name and street. It was a small, 
 private place, of no note. 
 
 "I ll tell you what we can do, Evvy," Noll con-
 
 MINNIE TRUE. 161 
 
 tinned; "I ll persuade father to let us begin the new- 
 year there, instead of at Madame Vanrie s, and we can 
 try if we can t accomplish something, too. I don t 
 think much of Madame Vanrie, and I don t believe 
 father does, though he never says much, because Sophy 
 is always scolding about her." 
 
 " I should like to change schools, if Minnie s is a 
 good one," said Eva ; " and it would be delightful to 
 meet her every day." 
 
 " Yes, and we will do it," Noll announced, de 
 cisively. 
 
 " Well, girls," said Mrs. Dana, coming into the room, 
 " you have chatted busily enough to make up for hav 
 ing no other entertainment, I suppose." 
 
 " We have held a great discussion, and come to a 
 grand decision," said Eva. 
 
 " Let me hear results," Mrs. Dana replied, seating 
 herself among them. 
 
 " Evvy and I are going to leave Madame Vanrie s 
 school, and go to the same one that Minnie does." 
 
 "I should think it would require the sanction of 
 some one in authority, before you could finally de 
 cide any such question." 
 
 " I influence the authorities," said Noll, with droll 
 gravity. "I know, if I explain matters to father, he 
 will approve ; and, when he is won over, he will bring 
 ma along, too, perforce." 
 11
 
 162 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 "Very sagacious," laughed Mrs. Dana. 
 
 " But," said Eva, " the trouble is, we haven t any 
 specialties to be at work upon in all our spare time, as 
 Minnie has." 
 
 " I had not thought of that," said Noll. 
 
 "Why don t you each choose one?" asked Minnie. 
 
 "So we will! Let me see," began Noll. 
 
 " Don t be in a hurry about so important a matter," 
 said Mrs. Dana. " If your choice is to be of any ser 
 vice, it is a weighty question. I propose that you 
 leave the subject now, and think about it at your 
 leisure. If you come to any decision, we will hear it 
 on the last evening of .your visit." 
 
 " I shall want all that time to find out what I am 
 good for," said Eva. 
 
 " Seems to me I shall never be able to choose one 
 thing and stick to it" said Noll. 
 
 "But you must," cried Minnie. "If you keep 
 changing your business, you will never be very good 
 at anvthing." 
 
 / O 
 
 "I am afraid I never shall," acquiesced Noll, humbly. 
 
 "Business?" queried Eva. 
 
 Noll unconsciously straightened herself upon her 
 ottoman, as Frank s step came along the hall, and 
 Frank s face appeared inside the library door. 
 
 "What are you all doing here?" he asked, in some 
 surprise at the solemn little conclave.
 
 MINNIE TRUE. 163 
 
 
 
 " Holding a Yankee town meeting," said Minnie. 
 
 " Waiting for you," replied Mrs. Dana. " Is every 
 thing ready ? " 
 
 " No ; you are not," returned Frank, as lie tossed his 
 hat upon a table, and took a chair among them. 
 "Who is moderator?" 
 
 " Mary," said Minnie. 
 
 "Mrs. Moderator, I move that this meeting be 
 adjourned sine die, that the members may make 
 ready for a trip to Staten Island." 
 
 " Second the motion ! " Minnie joyfully exclaimed. 
 
 "And I!" "And I!" cried Noll and Eva. 
 
 "As the entire meeting seconds the motion, there is 
 hardly need of putting it to vote," said Mrs. Dana. 
 "Frank s impatience shows that all is ready but our 
 selves, so I recommend hasty toilets." 
 
 "My impatience!" demurred Frank. "I thought I 
 had exhibited anything but that, in going through the 
 tedious parliamentary formula to start you to get 
 ready." 
 
 " O, you behaved beautifully ! " Mary rejoined ; " but 
 you were impatient, or the parliamentary formula 
 would not have been tedious." And Mrs. Dana fol 
 lowed the girls up stairs, to heed her own recom 
 mendation of a hasty toilet.
 
 164 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 NOLL AND EVA. 
 
 A SHORT drive brought them to a small wharf upon 
 JL\- the river, in the upper part of the city. A pretty 
 Bail-boat lay here, and a skipper was stretched full 
 length upon her deck, as if to dry in the sunshine. 
 The man rolled lazily to his feet, while they alighted 
 from the carriage, and, with Frank, assisted the ladies 
 to step aboard. While they settled themselves and a 
 large hamper in the stern of the boat, and spread um 
 brellas, the skipper pushed off and spread his sail. 
 Soon they were gliding smoothly and rapidly down 
 the river. Frank had brought a huge light gingham 
 umbrella, which he arranged so as to comfortably pro 
 tect himself and Eva, while he kept one hand free to 
 manage the helm according to the skipper s order. A 
 few hours sail brought them to a pleasant cove in 
 Staten Island, where a cool and shady grove reached 
 to the water s edge, and a boat-house stood half hid 
 behind a jutting rock. Before their boat was fairly
 
 THE SAIL. Page 164.
 
 NOLL AXD EVA. 165 
 
 secured beside the little wharf, a man appeared from 
 a well-kept terraced garden higher up the island ; but 
 upon recognizing Mrs. Dana, lie changed his first inten 
 tion of ordering the party off with the information 
 that these were private grounds, and no picnics re 
 ceived, to a cordial welcome, and all the assistance he 
 could render about landing. The owner of these 
 beautiful grounds, a friend of Mr. and Mrs. Dana, was 
 travelling in the mountains with his family. Mrs. Dana 
 had often visited here, and now brought her young 
 friends to picnic in the grove, by invitation of the 
 lady herself. The sail and the cool breeze of the sea 
 had so sharpened their appetites that they were glad 
 to first attack the hamper they had brought. After 
 wards they wandered through the grove, gathering 
 green leaves and little wild flowers. Then they drew 
 around a mossy old rock, on the edge, to see the 
 sun set. 
 
 " I am going to make a wreath, for Mary, of my 
 leaves and flowers," said Eva. " We will crown her 
 our queen." 
 
 "And I will make one for Noll," Minnie rejoined. 
 
 " Then I will try and gobble mine together as well 
 as I can for Evvy," said Noll. " I m no sort of a hand 
 at making pretty things." 
 
 " I must see that Minnie is properly adorned out of 
 my lapful of treasures," said Mrs. Dana.
 
 166 EVA BOBEKTS EDUCATION". 
 
 " Seems to me you have made a very pretty ring of 
 yourselves, and left me out in the cold," Frank said. 
 
 " Never mind, Frank," said Eva ; " I was going to 
 make you one as soon as I had finished Mary s." 
 
 "All right, then," he replied, throwing himself down 
 beside her. " Shall I pull off the leaves for you ? " 
 
 " Yes ; only don t leave little tails to them. Take 
 your knife and cut each stem. I ve been biting them 
 till my teeth ache." 
 
 " Frank ! " exclaimed Noll, suddenly, " I wish you d 
 tell me what I m good for." 
 
 Frank raised his eyebrows, and would have enjoyed 
 laughing if Noll had not seemed so fearfully in earnest. 
 As it was, he could not help replying, " Good for ask 
 ing surprising questions. Capital for that, I should 
 say." 
 
 " I suppose that is one of the many things I am bad 
 for," Noll gravely and sadly answered. 
 
 " What did you mean by asking me that ? " inquired 
 Frank, seriously. 
 
 " I really wanted to know." 
 
 " Noll and I are going to choose a profession while 
 we are with Mary. She is to approve our choice, and 
 then we shall study for that special object," explained 
 Eva. 
 
 "A profession !" grimaced Frank. 
 
 " Of course I don t mean minister, doctor, or lawyer ; 
 but just as Minnie has taken music."
 
 NOLL AXD EVA. 167 
 
 "And did you wish me to give my opinion of what 
 you had better choose?" asked Frank of Noll. 
 
 Yes." 
 
 " Then I must beg you to wait a while, till I have 
 had time to form one. I am not competent, on so 
 short acquaintance, to give an opinion on such a serious 
 question." 
 
 "I know what Noll could do splendidly," said 
 Minnie. 
 
 " What ? " cried Noll, eagerly. 
 
 " O, I m not going to say till we hold our final meet 
 ing. I hope you will think of it yourself. If you do 
 not, I shall offer my opinion for your consideration, 
 then." 
 
 " O, dear, I shall never know. Hold up your head, 
 Evvy ; " and a wreath was laid gently on Eva s fore 
 head. 
 
 " May I come to your final meeting ? " 
 
 " Ask Mary. She is chairman," said Minnie. 
 
 Frank looked up at his sister. 
 
 " I think that ought to be decided by the parties 
 most interested. How is it, girls ? " said Mrs. Dana, 
 appealing to Noll and Eva. 
 
 " I m willing he should come," said Eva. 
 
 "So am I, if he will only have an opinion about 
 me," said Noll. 
 
 Thus Frank became a member of the occupation
 
 168 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 meeting, as Minnie called it. The wreaths were all com 
 pleted and placed upon their heads. The sun was just 
 disappearing in a sultry red haze, across the Jersey flats, 
 as they came down upon the little curving beach, whose 
 two horns reached far out into the water. They were 
 quickly in the boat, and the skipper soon had it skim 
 ming along up the lazy river. It was far into the 
 evening when they again moored beside the little wharf 
 whence they had started in the morning. The carriage 
 had been waiting two hours. They were all rather 
 weary with the long sail, and were glad to be jolted 
 over the streets toward home. 
 
 Noll wanted to give up tatting after her fruitless at 
 tempts of the first evening. But Minnie would not 
 allow it. She declared she -wanted to see just how 
 much duller Noll would prove herself than Eva. As 
 Eva had learned, certainly Noll could, if she only per 
 severed. So she persistently brought forward, every 
 day, the same little white shuttle, from which, already, 
 half the thread had disappeared with no apparent 
 progress. At last Noll grew determined, saying that 
 she "wouldn t be such an idiot. She could and she 
 ^could learn." After that she very soon did learn, and 
 before their visit was over she had made nearly a yard 
 of plain rounds, and several inches of Minnie s own 
 beautiful and intricate lace pattern. Minnie felt that 
 the rousing of Noll s own interest and perseverance,
 
 NOLL AND EVA. 169 
 
 which had made her final success in the work, was her 
 share in the triumph. Noll might be proud, of her 
 tatting Minnie was proud of Noll. Their choice of 
 business interested the girls greatly, and many were 
 the talks they had about it. But Minnie persistently 
 refused to suggest any new course to either of them, 
 though she did not hesitate to advance many consider 
 ations for or against any one they might be discussing. 
 Frank and Mrs. Dana frequently had some pleasure 
 trip planned for them, and Noll declared she had seen 
 more of her native city in her visit at Mrs. Dana s than 
 in all the rest of her life together. But the pleasant 
 four weeks drew to a close at length. Eva could not 
 help a feeling of sadness at leaving the happy home 
 like house, where she had met old friends, and seemed to 
 be once more a little girl. Poor little Eva ! only fourteen, 
 and yet feeling her childhood to be a time long past. 
 Even Noll, a year older, a foot taller, and a long way 
 Aviser in many things, seemed younger than Eva. For 
 truly it is sorrow that ages us, and Eva had felt that in 
 her young heart. It was a serious and earnest thing to 
 her, this h xing upon some one branch of industry as 
 her special work. It meant something by which she 
 could provide for herself, and perhaps for others, if she 
 should ever again see such hard times as she had known 
 in -that year at Campfields; something by which she 
 might, at least, never again be compelled to live upon
 
 170 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 Charley s earnings and self-sacrifice. For Noll, however, 
 it was only something to interest to keep her busy 
 and out of mischief. No wonder Noll thought of vari 
 ous delightful methods of accomplishing such ends; and 
 no wonder Eva found it hard to select any one thing, upon 
 which she dared risk the securing of such important 
 objects. Thus it was with very undecided minds that 
 the girls gathered in Mrs. Dana s library, on the last 
 evening of their visit. 
 
 "It isn t the least bit of use, Mrs. Dana," said Noll, 
 "for me to try to choose a profession. I shall never be 
 able to stick to it six months, if I have one, much less 
 ever do any good with it." 
 
 "But you must stick to it; and then I ll take the. 
 risk of your not doing any good with it," replied Mrs. 
 Dana. . 
 
 "You say I must; but how can I, when it isn t in 
 me?" 
 
 " I admit that there is not in you much natural per 
 severance. You must balance that defect by calling in 
 the aid of some other quality that is in you." 
 
 " What other quality ? " 
 
 " Sign a pledge with yourself that you will keep 
 steadily to the pursuit you have chosen. Then your 
 honor steps in, and your self-respect. I am sure you 
 will not fail when those qualities come to your aid." 
 
 " 0, Mrs. Dana, I believe I should succeed in that
 
 NOLL AND EVA. 171 
 
 way. But how do you know I shall certainly do good 
 with my profession, accomplish anything in this big 
 world, even if I do persevere?" 
 
 " Because that really is in you. You have a true 
 and earnest desire to become a woman who shall be 
 good for something in the world. Nothing will hinder 
 you from achieving this except your unsteadiness to 
 any one purpose. You have excellent talents, but you 
 play with them, instead of using them. I know many 
 people persevere forever, and never seem to amount to 
 much ; but it is because they persevere in a work for 
 which they are not, either by nature or by education, 
 fitted." 
 
 " Well, I wonder what I am fitted for, either by 
 nature or education," sighed Noll. 
 
 " Now is the time to find out your natural bent, and 
 then you can adapt your educational course to it." 
 
 Noll sat silent and thoughtful. Leaving her to study 
 out her problem for herself, Mrs. Dana turned to 
 Eva. 
 
 " What have you found to be your strongest inclina 
 tion ? " 
 
 " I really don t know, dear Mary," Eva replied, in a 
 gad and just a little mortified tone. "It seems such 
 an important matter ; and I don t think I have any 
 natural bent." 
 
 " It is an important matter. If I thought your uncle
 
 172 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 Martyn was enough acquainted with you to aid you, I 
 should have advised your consulting him; but " 
 
 "O, he knows very little about me," replied Eva. 
 "He just loves and cares for me because I am his 
 sister s child ; but he has only seen me in those few 
 weeks before I came to aunt Matilda s, since I was a 
 very little girl." 
 
 " And Charley ? " suggested Minnie. 
 
 " I wrote to him all about it." 
 
 "And what did he say?" asked Minnie, eagerly. 
 
 " He could not help me any," replied Eva, dropping 
 her head over her work, while a pink color crept slowly 
 out to the very tips of her little ears ; for Charley had 
 thought this choosing a profession very comical busi 
 ness for girls, and he told Eva that she would be most 
 successful, and do most good in the world, as some good 
 man s wife. It was not at all the sort of answer she 
 had hoped for, and somehow it had grieved her sadly; 
 It might be all very well to be a good man s wife ; but 
 supposing she never had a chance to marry any one she 
 liked. How dreadful it would be to marry old Mr. 
 Donaldson, like Hi, and consider him always as just a 
 tolerable sort of bore ! Would Charley ever want her 
 to be such a " good man s wife " ? 
 
 "Didn t he offer you a single suggestion?" nsked 
 Mrs. Dana, feeling that it was not exactly like Charley 
 to have nothing at all to say upon such a question.
 
 NOLL AND EVA. 173 
 
 "Nothing that was good for anything." 
 
 "What did he say?" Mrs. Dana was busy with a 
 pattern in colored wools, or she would have seen Eva s 
 distressed little face, and refrained from questioning. 
 
 Frank noticed the pink deepen to an uncomfortable 
 red, and guessed what Charley s advice had been. 
 "Made fun of you didn t he, Eva? Ought to have 
 been ashamed of himself only I suppose he didn t 
 know how much in earnest you are." 
 
 " No ; I m sure he didn t know, or he wouldn t have 
 laughed at it," replied Eva, quickly, with a feeling of 
 great relief, for which she shot a look of gratitude to 
 Frank. 
 
 " Seems to me you are both at a dead stand-still," 
 said Minnie. " What is the result of these later 
 cogitations, Noll?" 
 
 "I think I could be a good actress," said Noll, slowly 
 and decidedly. 
 
 "Holy horrors!" muttered Frank. 
 
 Noll colored, and dropped her head again. Frank 
 repented his exclamation, and said, heartily, " I think 
 you could, too, Noll ; but, if I were you, I wouldn t." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " It would be a wicked waste. You can do so much 
 better so much more good, I mean by turning 
 your abilities in some other direction." 
 
 "Just tell me in what direction."
 
 174 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION: 
 
 " Well, in society. A woman of your character and 
 powers, with the additional circumstances of wealth 
 and position in which you happen to be placed, must 
 wield an immense influence over other women with 
 whom she is associated. Fashionable women, and 
 those in the higher circles of society, need just such 
 elevating and enlarging of their characters as you 
 could teach them. There isn t one atom that is pet 
 ty or selfish in you." Frank spoke so earnestly that 
 Noll s face glowed with a pleasure which forgot to blush 
 at his last assertion. She felt that he spoke the truth. 
 She knew she could influence others. Yet she was not 
 satisfied, and could not tell why. 
 
 " I think," said Mrs. Dana, " Frank has brought out 
 some very broad and good ideas ; and yet it seems to 
 me they do not quite give the solution to Noll s prob 
 lem." 
 
 " I don t see how I am to study for such a work," 
 said Noll. 
 
 "No doubt," Mrs. Dana continued, "Noll will exer 
 cise great influence with those among whom she may 
 live and associate. But influence comes more from 
 what one is, than from what one does. All that Frank 
 says of Noll may become true, I think it probably 
 will, but that is, after all, only the passive and un 
 conscious part of her life. She wants now some active 
 -purpose something for which to fit herself, and which
 
 NOLL AND EVA. 175 
 
 shall become a positive labor towards the achievement 
 of an object." 
 
 " So you see I don t get ahead one bit ! " Noll was 
 getting so much in earnest about this matter, and so 
 discouraged at the difficulty of finding any pursuit 
 adapted to her, that her voice was gaining an accent 
 of bitter disappointment. 
 
 " I shall have to tell you my plan," said Minnie, 
 cheerfully. 
 
 " O, do, if you have one." 
 
 " Perhaps it will not suit you. I thought of it be 
 cause you have such odd ways of saying things, and 
 of going to the bottom of matters at once." 
 
 " Should think I had ! " murmured Noll. 
 
 " Seeing through people, I mean, and understanding 
 them better than I could ; " and Minnie paused, uncer 
 tain whether to finish or not. 
 
 " Go on ; but have it something I must study for and 
 work for." 
 
 " Well, you would need to keep on studying out 
 characters of people. Eva can help you at that, I 
 think. And you must read read a great deal old 
 standard authors, and the very best new books read 
 and study them." 
 
 "That s fine!" said Noll. "I ve always done that 
 sort of work, for play. What else ? " 
 
 " I don t know what else ; but perhaps you will.
 
 176 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 Then some time when you are quite grown up, say 
 twenty-five or thirty, O, you must practise a great 
 deal." 
 
 " Practise what ? " 
 
 "Writing out your thoughts. And then write a 
 wonderful book, that shall do a great deal of good in 
 the world go everywhere, and be translated into all 
 the languages of Europe ! " 
 
 " O ! " cried Eva, who had followed Minnie up to the 
 climax of her proposition with the utmost eagerness, 
 and now felt quite rewarded. 
 
 Noll was silent and thoughtful. " Perhaps I could 
 do something at writing," she said, at last. "At any 
 rate, it is better than anything else I have thought of. 
 And it would not hinder me from carrying out Frank s 
 suggestions, too." 
 
 " What had you thought of? You have only men 
 tioned one thing," said Mrs. Dana. 
 
 "O, I thought of the stage and the pulpit. I should 
 like to be a minister, if I only wasn t a girl." 
 
 " Stage and pulpit ! Quite a juxtaposition ! " laughed 
 Frank. 
 
 " And then I d like to be a hospital nurse, or a pro 
 fessor in a girls college, only I don t know what I 
 should want to be professor of." 
 
 "Belles-lettres, of course," put in Minnie. "That 
 and authorship would run nicely together."
 
 NOLL AND EVA. 177 
 
 " So they would ! I ll remember that," said Noll. 
 " Among you all, you have given me quite a start on 
 my career, and I shall be everlastingly grateful to you. 
 I shall certainly turn my attention to belles-lettres, 
 and as for specialties therein, I can work them out for 
 myself, and decide by and by, as Minnie intends to do 
 about her music. I want to hear Evvy s plans talked 
 out, now." 
 
 " I m afraid I haven t any," said Eva, gently. Noll s 
 prospects looked so brilliant, and her own so very blank ! 
 
 " We ll soon find you have," said Mrs. Dana, 
 kindly. " Tell me what you like to study best at 
 school." 
 
 " I like Latin best ; but I couldn t be a Latin pro 
 fessor in a girls college." 
 
 Mrs. Dana laughed at her dismayed little face as she 
 made this statement. " No ; professorships are not in 
 your line. You do not care much for your music ? " 
 
 " Not very much." 
 
 " Drawing and painting ? " 
 
 " I ve not done much at them." 
 
 " Evvy can copy pictures very nicely," Noll sug 
 gested. 
 
 " But I don t enjoy it. I should not like to do it for 
 a living." 
 
 "What had you thought of for yourself?" asked 
 Mrs. Dana. 
 
 12
 
 178 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 " I can sew nicely. I used to earn something in that 
 way at Campfields ; but it was very little." 
 
 Frank made an impatient gesture, and Mrs. Dana re 
 plied, " Manual labor is always necessary ; but it seems 
 to me only fair to leave that kind of work, as it is the 
 simplest, to those who have had no advantages, or no 
 abilities for doing what will call into use, not only 
 hands, but careful, earnest thought, and long, often ex 
 pensive culture. Women have been too long occupied 
 with only the manual labor of the world. It is time 
 they remembered that the work of their brains may be 
 made as valuable as the brain-work of man." 
 
 " Perhaps, if I attended thoroughly to my drawing 
 and painting, music and the languages, I might be able 
 to teach them to beginners, as a governess. But I 
 can t be a genius at anything." 
 
 " Very few of us can," replied Mrs. Dana. " But you 
 have set yourself a very hard task, Eva dear, to learn, 
 thoroughly, drawing, painting, music, and the lan 
 guages. You would scatter your energies too much. 
 Since you do not care for music and drawing, and do 
 enjoy your Latin, I think you would make a better use 
 of your time to give your special attention to lan 
 guages. Very likely you will find you have a taste 
 for German and French, as well as Latin." 
 
 " I should like that better. But I don t see what 
 good I can do with it."
 
 NOLL AND EVA. 179 
 
 " Never mind ; you will see in time. If your taste 
 is for language, follow it, and trust to time and experi 
 ence to show you how to turn your talent to good 
 account." 
 
 " But the music and drawing must have some atten 
 tion, I suppose. Aunt Matilda is very particular that 
 we do not slight any of our accomplishments." 
 
 "Do not entirely neglect them, of course. Only 
 give them less attention that you do your languages." 
 
 "I shall have to brush up on French and German, if 
 you are to become a great linguist," said Frank. " I ve 
 no notion of letting you get ahead of me with your 
 wonderful educational plans." 
 
 "There s an example of woman s unconscious influ 
 ence," laughed Mary Dana. " I had no idea, when I 
 advised Eva to what seemed her best course of study, 
 that I was inciting my brother to atone for his past 
 rernissness in the study of modern languages." 
 
 Noll s first words, when she woke next morning, 
 were, " I m so glad it is settled ! " 
 
 " Our studies ? So am I," returned Eva, with a con 
 tented little yawn. 
 
 " Are you perfectly satisfied with yours ? " 
 
 " I should like to know how I am to use my lan 
 guages, but " 
 
 " O, we shall find that out by the time we want to 
 be of use. I think mine is a lovely programme just 
 what I like best to do read and write!"
 
 180 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 " I suppose you ought to read with a sort of critic s 
 eye observing the style of the authors, and seeing 
 how it is formed." 
 
 " Certainly ; and I must take up a course of composi 
 tion and rhetoric." 
 
 At the breakfast table Mr. Dana appeared. He had 
 just come into the city on the night boat. Perhaps 
 he was tired ; certainly he was cross. He brought a 
 shadow with him. The girls felt that Mary Dana s 
 sweet face had lost a little of its usual sunshine. Mr. 
 Dana found the coffee weak, and the steak not to his 
 liking. He inquired for his horses, and showed de 
 cided vexation on learning that one of them had been 
 accidentally lamed. He hoped he saw the young la 
 dies well, and that they had not found it dull, shut up 
 in the city for the summer. Then he apparently for 
 got all about them, and devoted himself unreservedly 
 to his breakfast. There was a saddened look on Min 
 nie s happy face; Frank s was growing black. Noll 
 felt disgusted, and exerted herself bravely to counter 
 act a downward tendency in the corners of her mouth. 
 Eva commenced a pleasant and lively conversation 
 with Mrs. Dana, which the others finally joined, and 
 which was carefully kept from flagging until after Mr. 
 Dana had swallowed his coffee and steak, and left the 
 table to visit the stable and his injured horse. 
 
 Much as the girls had regretted the close of their
 
 NOLL AND EVA. 181 
 
 visit, they could not help feeling that, even if it w.ere 
 prolonged, its delight must end with the return of Mr. 
 Dana. So they went quietly and resignedly about 
 their preparations for departure. At dinner time they 
 met Mr. Meredith at his own table again. Afterwards 
 they followed him to his library, which he was very 
 glad to have once more invaded by the life and bright 
 ness of their presence. There he asked them many 
 questions of their visit, and how they had employed 
 themselves. 
 
 They told of Noll s success in tattling, of their various 
 pleasure parties and sight-seeings, and lastly Noll told 
 him of their educational plan. Mr. Meredith listened 
 with approving face, and told them he not only thought 
 it a good one, but he was more pleased than he could 
 tell them to see his girls for so he considered them 
 both taking an earnest, workful view of life and its 
 duties. 
 
 Then Noll broached the further project of leaving 
 Madame Vanrie s school, to attend the one where Min 
 nie True went. She extolled the advantages of a 
 shorter session, greater freedom of choice in branches 
 pursued, less punctiliousness about etiquette and ac 
 complishments, and more attention paid to solid 
 studies. Her father heard her arguments and rea 
 sons through, and then promised to inquire into the 
 advantages of this new school, and decide when he
 
 182 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 had informed himself enough to make up his mind. 
 Then the girls went to bed in their own familiar room 
 once more. But Noll declared the day was won ; she 
 was sure her father would agree with her. And so, in 
 time, it proved.
 
 El AND SOPHY. 183 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 EI AND SOPHY. 
 
 THERE was a great deal of stir and bustle in the 
 house when Mrs. Meredith and her daughters 
 returned from the Springs, and were busy unpacking 
 and settling their extensive wardrobes at home again. 
 M. Meredith astonished the whole family not even 
 excepting Noll and Eva by announcing at dinner, 
 one day, that he had been inquiring into the manner 
 of conducting schools, and he had concluded that it 
 would be advisable to transfer the girls, with the open 
 ing of this new year, from Madame Vanrie s to Mrs. 
 Hoffman s instruction. 
 
 "What fault can you find with Madame Yanrie? 
 What will she say ? " expostulated Mrs. Meredith. 
 
 " I find no fault. The explanation should simply be, 
 that Mrs. Hoffman s school seems preferable." 
 
 "But Madame Vanrie s is so fashionable, and every 
 way comme il faut ! " 
 
 Mr. Meredith looked disgusted, and remained silent.
 
 184 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION-. 
 
 "And, Mrs. Hoffman is such a low name!" 
 
 Mr. Meredith finished his dinner, and retired .to his 
 library. 
 
 Sophy broke the spell his grave presence had en 
 forced. " Noll and Eva can do as they please, but / 
 shan t stir a step to the new school. I shall be eighteen 
 next spring, and you always said we needn t go to 
 school after that." 
 
 " It will be hard for you to change for just these six 
 months," said her mother, sympathizingly. 
 
 "I shan t do it!" repeated Sophy, growing more 
 determined with her mother s connivance. 
 
 " What do you say to it ? " said Mrs. Meredith, 
 turning to Noll and Eva. , 
 
 " I don t like Madame Vanrie s, and I think I should 
 like to change," replied Noll, gravely. 
 
 "Neither do I like Madame Vanrie," cried Sophy, 
 savagely ; " but a new school would probably be worse, 
 particxilarly if pa has selected it for some stringent ex 
 cellence." 
 
 "Hush, dear; don t speak so!" murmured Mrs. 
 Meredith. "Eva, of course, can follow her own 
 choice." 
 
 " I shall certainly make the change, if uncle approves 
 it," said Eva. 
 
 " Then I shall stay at home till my six mouths are 
 up "
 
 El AND SOPHY. 185 
 
 "And then you ll keep on staying at home," sug 
 gested Noll. 
 
 " What s all this about staying at home ? " asked 
 Jack, who had caught the last two remarks as he en 
 tered. " Sophy never had any such domestic tendency 
 before ; " and he prepared his soup, and began to eat it 
 with the eager appetite of a hungry man. 
 
 Mrs. Meredith explained what had passed, and add 
 ed, "I think it would be rather hard to break up all 
 Sophy s school connections for so short a time." 
 
 "Yes, so it would. Why doesn t she keep on at 
 Madame Vanrie s, and let the other girls change, if 
 they like?" 
 
 " Because I don t choose to make myself the target 
 of all the school s questions, about why the other girls 
 left. No ; I ve made up my mind not to go to school 
 another day." 
 
 " Then I don t see but you will have to stop at 
 home," said Jack, shoving aside his soup plate, and 
 wiping his mustache. 
 
 " I should think, ma," said Ri, " you would like to 
 have her at home, after I am gone. Sophy would be 
 so much company for you ! " 
 
 " A daughter can t be much company till she comes 
 out. I am so much occupied myself in society ! " said 
 Mrs. Meredith, thoughtfully. 
 
 " Yes, but now, ma, dear," began Sophy, " I should
 
 186 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 be so happy, if you .only would let me come out 
 this winter! Since Ri is to be married off, there 
 really isn t any reason why I shouldn t. Of course 
 I wouldn t think of such a thing, if Ri wasn t fairly 
 off your hands. But I am as near eighteen now as I 
 shall be next winter." 
 
 " I ll think about it," said Mrs. Meredith, rising. 
 "Come, Ri, you have two dresses to try on this 
 evening." 
 
 Noll and Eva went to Mrs. Hoffman s school, and 
 there renewed with pleasure their acquaintance with 
 Minnie True. In their spare hours, they planned and 
 began a course of earnest study in the direction they 
 had determined upon. Sophy remained at home, and 
 made herself useful by assisting Ri upon the final busi 
 ness of her trousseau. Mr. Donaldson made his daily 
 call, and Ri received him with her usual amiable deco 
 rum ; but the excellent man could not help feeling a 
 shadow of disappointment that she never once tripped 
 into exhibiting any hearty affection for him. Yet she 
 was always so sweet and lovely, he could not believe 
 that she did not feel for him all that her promise of 
 marriage gave him reason to expect. Thus the Sep 
 tember days flew swiftly by, and Ri s wedding was 
 close at hand. 
 
 "Jack," said Sophy, coming suddenly upon him in 
 the hall, as he was entering his own room, " you and 
 Eva are to be first couple, next to Ri, you know."
 
 KI AND SOPHY. 187 
 
 " No, that is your place. Dick Waters is with you 
 isn t he?" 
 
 " I don t want that place, but you needn t say I said 
 so. You are the oldest. You can claim it; and Hi 
 prefers you should have it." 
 
 "Does she? She hasn t said anything to me 
 about it." 
 
 "But she will tell you so, if you ask her. Dick 
 wants the first place, and I am determined he shall not 
 have it, and so is Ri ; and I m sure Ri ought to have 
 her own say." 
 
 Of course." 
 
 " Then you will claim the first place on your own re 
 sponsibility, and cut out Dick will you?" 
 
 "Yes, if that s your game," replied Jack, laughing. 
 Then, on the other side of his closed door, he said to 
 himself, " Sophy has a spite against Waters. I wonder 
 what there really was about an elopement with him ? 
 I ve a good mind to try and find out, if only I had the 
 time." 
 
 Ri was not a bride that the sun shone upon, nor 
 the moon, either. Some said it was a late equi 
 noctial storm, that spent its accumulated fury on the 
 last few days of September. At any rate, there was 
 nearly a week of almost ceaseless rain and drizzle, with 
 cold, searching winds from the north-east. But people 
 in well-lined houses, who never venture out save in
 
 188 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 equally well-lined carriages, think little of the acci 
 dents of weather. Sophy did gloomily remark that 
 "it was a horrid bad sign," but she was hastily silenced 
 by her mother. The gay bustle of preparation pro 
 ceeded, and Hi was whirled along with it, and found 
 never a moment for doubt or foreboding. All her 
 wishes were gratified; every beautiful thing she de 
 sired was quickly supplied; till to Sophy this getting 
 married seemed a sort of talisman to open the doors 
 of fairy-land, and shower its gifts about her. It was a 
 grand wedding, quite too grand for little Eva, who 
 stood trembling in her place as first bridesmaid. So 
 phy was doubly triumphant in foiling Dick Waters 
 scheme for standing next Ri, and in looking better 
 than ever before in her life. 
 
 " Ri is beautiful as a picture ! " she said to Dick, 
 with real sisterly pride and delight, when, the long 
 hours of reception over, she took his arm, as the bridal 
 party passed out to refreshment. A table was set for 
 them in a small breakfast-parlor, opening from the 
 dining-room. The guests had departed, save a few 
 flitting forms, disfigured with wraps, that haunted the 
 front hall, awaiting belated carriages. The house wore 
 the forlorn appearance that always follows in the foot 
 steps of a retreating crowd : littered carpets, disar 
 ranged furniture, here and there a glove or lace hand 
 kerchief, dropped and forgotten by its owner. But the
 
 El AND SOPHY. 189 
 
 little breakfast-parlor had been kept comparatively 
 fresh in appearance. The newly-laid table looked 
 cheerful and inviting to the weary couples who had 
 formed the statue-like centre of all this moving 
 pageant. Their faces came out of the stereotyped 
 phase they had donned for the evening, and bright 
 ened with a sense of relief, as they found themselves 
 no longer " the observed of all observers." 
 
 "Yes, Ri is beautiful," replied Dick, shortly, to So 
 phy s remark ; then added, quoting from an old song, 
 
 " But, 
 
 If she be not fair to me, 
 
 What care I how fair she be ? " 
 
 " The ruling passion strong in death, I see," replied 
 Sophy, as she sank wearily into her chair at the table. 
 
 " What passion ? " Dick s black eyes flashed in her 
 face. 
 
 "Selfishness!" she coolly replied, adjusting the 
 flounces of her feathery-white robe. 
 
 " Will you have oysters ? " 
 
 "Yes; thank you." 
 
 Noll and Mortimer had both accepted with satisfac 
 tion their position in the background. Noll did not 
 show her usual ready communicativeness. Mortimer 
 would have liked to draw her into conversation ; but 
 having supplied her plate according to her desire, re 
 marked upon the beauty of the bride, and regretted
 
 190 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 the unfavorable weather, he found himself quite nt a 
 loss what he should say next, with a dim feeling that 
 perhaps silence would be the most agreeable thing he 
 could offer. lie knew she could talk, but inferred from 
 her brief replies that just at present she would not. 
 
 " Aren t you dreadfully tired, Evvy, dear ? " she 
 leaned across him to ask of Eva, who sat between 
 him and Jack, and had an unusual flush upon her little 
 face. 
 
 " Yes, rather." Eva smiled faintly, and down went 
 the glass of water she was about to raise to her lips. 
 Jack caught it in time to save the contents from being 
 dashed into her neck and bosom. 
 
 " What is it, little girl?" he whispered, bending over 
 her kindly. 
 
 " I don t know. I m tired. I guess that s all," and 
 she leaned an elbow heavily on the table. 
 
 " Do you want to go up stairs ? " 
 
 " No ; not yet. It isn t time." 
 
 " No matter for that." 
 
 " I don t want to go." 
 
 Noll was listening and holding her breath. 
 
 " She is a brave little girl," said Mortimer to Noll, in 
 a low voice. 
 
 " Let s hurry up and get through supper, so she can 
 go to bed," was the brusque rejoinder. "I know she is 
 tired almost to death; " and Noll suited the action to
 
 El AND SOPHY. 191 
 
 the word by applying herself to her heaped plate 
 with such unction and address that its contents rap 
 idly disappeared. 
 
 It required all Mortimer Salsby s good breeding to 
 suppress a smile at the odd suggestion and its abrupt 
 carrying out. When Noll ejaculated between her 
 hasty mouthfuls of cake, " Evvy is a little angel ! You 
 don t begin to know her, first time seeing her ! " he fell 
 gradually into her enthusiastic spirit enough to expe 
 dite slightly his own fastidious manner of feasting. 
 But Hi, who sat smiling between Mr. Donalson and 
 Sophy, did not notice the weary little face opposite. 
 Sophy was eagerly detailing to her the various cos 
 tumes of the guests present, with an accuracy that 
 seemed to have made special note of each one. It was 
 still a long time before they rose from their repast. 
 Jack detained Eva till they had all passed through the 
 hall and stood in the great empty drawing-room again. 
 Then he took her gently up, like a tired child, in his 
 arms, and carried her to her own room. 
 
 " You are just as good to me as Charley could be," 
 Eva said, with a sad little effort at laughter, that died 
 into tears before it was quite born. 
 
 " There, don t move. I m a doctor, you know," he 
 said, as he placed her upon her bed. lie brought a 
 towel from the rack, and a bottle of cologne from the 
 toilet, and bathed her aching head and hot face as gen-
 
 192 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 tly as a mother. And Eva just lay and cried because 
 she couldn t help it, and didn t know why. 
 
 "Have you got those slippers done that you were 
 making for me to take out to Charley ? " he asked. 
 
 " Yes. That is, they were to be done last week ; but 
 we ve been so busy I have not been to the shoemaker s 
 for them yet." 
 
 " I m glad they are ready. Do you know when I 
 am going ? " 
 
 "This fall, you said." 
 
 " I have been waiting for the wedding. I shall start 
 to-morrow night." 
 
 Eva opened wide her blue eyes, forgetting her tears. 
 " O, Jack, I shall be so sorry to have you go ! " 
 
 " Will you ? " said Jack, with a little laugh. " I didn t 
 expect that of any one but Noll." 
 
 "Does Noll know you are going so soon?" 
 
 " Not yet. I thought she had better lose us one at 
 a time." 
 
 " We shall miss you dreadfully more than lii, 
 even." 
 
 " Well, I am going straight to Charley ; so what 
 shall I take him from you?" and Jack called his eyes 
 back from a sorrowful stare at the opposite wall, and 
 played with the perfumed towel in his hands. 
 
 "Tell him O, I ve nothing much to tell him! I 
 write him everything. Only I wish I had him here to
 
 El AND SOPHY. 193 
 
 give him one good hug! Tell him five years are an 
 awfully long time ! " 
 
 "Yes," said Jack, absently. 
 
 " No ; O, no ! I forgot. You musn t tell him that, 
 either." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 "Because uncle Martyn is so good to me, and I 
 promised him I would be just as happy as a 
 bird here. It would grieve Charley if he thought 
 I was not." 
 
 " But you are not. And I am not to tell him that you 
 are as much out of place in this house as a lamb in a 
 lock-up ; that you are as much at a loss what to make 
 of your aunt and cousins, as if they had been born in 
 India, and spoke Hindostanee ; that you will manage 
 to make something out of Noll, but all the rest of us 
 were past help when you came ; and that finally you 
 will come out of your experience here, a sadder and a 
 wiser woman. " 
 
 "Don t talk so, Jack." 
 
 "Isn t it all true?" 
 
 " Some of it sounded a little so ; but you said it bit 
 terly, dear Jack, and that s not right. I know I 4 n t 
 understand you all as well as I ought, but that is as 
 much in me as in you. It is only that we are differ 
 ent. One can t expect to understand everything and 
 everybody, you know." 
 13
 
 194 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION". 
 
 " But seems to me I understand yon, Eva. Seems to 
 me I can understand how terribly hollow and heartless 
 everything here must seem to you, and what would be 
 your way of living if you were in your own home." 
 
 " Very likely you can. It would not be anything 
 very hard to understand, I think." 
 
 "I am going to see if your brother Charley is like 
 you. I don t ever mean to come back to the east. I 
 hope I shall find some one out there, like you, who 
 will help me make a home, something after your 
 fashion." 
 
 " I hope you will, too, dear Jack." 
 
 " You ll come and see me won t you ? " 
 
 "Yes, indeed I will." 
 
 " Have the slippers ready to-morrow." 
 
 "I ll get them on my way to school." 
 
 " Good night. I ll send Noll up to put you to 
 bed." 
 
 Ri slipped in to bid Eva good by, as she came up to 
 exchange her bridal robes for a travelling suit. Then 
 she was driven away to Mr. Donaldson s elegant 
 rooms. Mr. and Mrs. Meredith met^ her for a final 
 parting on board the steamer next day. Jack said a 
 few careless farewells at dinner. Eva had sealed up 
 in the slippers a note to Charley, with latest accounts 
 of Jack s hopes and intentions, asking for special kind 
 ness and love to be shown him, as he had shown such
 
 El AND SOPHY. 195 
 
 to her. And Jack found a welcome in that western 
 home warmer than he had ever met in his own. 
 
 The house was scarcely straightened after Ri s de 
 parture, when there occurred what Noll styled "an 
 other disastrous invasion of the elite ; " for Sophy was 
 to take Ri s place in society. But Noll and Eva had 
 seen once the wonderful preparations for " coming 
 out ; " and partly for this reason, partly because they 
 were now more interested than formerly in affairs of 
 their own at school and at home, they took little notice 
 of the dressy miracles that filled Sophy s heart with 
 vain delight. 
 
 October was the lull, after the wedding preparations 
 and expectations had culminated and come to an end. 
 November saw Sophy launched upon the sea of socie 
 ty, for which she had so long felt the fascination and 
 longing of a sailor boy for a less fickle sea the broad 
 blue ocean itself. She became as completely Mrs. 
 Meredith s companion in all things as Ri had been 
 for the past year. Noll and Eva were left very 
 much to themselves. Sophy had been a connecting 
 link, uniting the interests of school and Mrs. Meredith s 
 social world. Now she left all school affairs out of her 
 life, and lost all interest in Noll s and Eva s pursuits. 
 Their new school, in which all their associates were 
 strangers to her, added to this indifference. But the
 
 196 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 two younger girls only settled the firmer into their 
 chosen studies. The whirl, excitement, and unsatis- 
 factoriness of Sophy s life they only guessed from afar. 
 It did not reach or affect their little, earnest, studious, 
 happy world.
 
 RESUME. 197 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 RESUME. 
 
 THE next three years of Eva s education passed 
 quietly by, with nothing to mark with special 
 interest any single day. But each and every one 
 brought its own earnest work, and its own pleasures, 
 in ever-increasing ratio. Noll found all the diversity 
 she required in following out her own choice of study. 
 Mrs. Hoffman had been made acquainted with the 
 course the girls wished to pursue, and entered heartily 
 into it, directing, encouraging, and instructing. Eva 
 and Noll came to be more than ever friends and com 
 panions. At last Eva ceased to feel the thin wall of 
 strangerhood that had for so long seemed to surround 
 her heart and keep it forever lonely. All unlikeness 
 was forgotten in the interest of their sirnilal- yet dis 
 tinct studies ; the old homesick feeling was gone ; and 
 Eva was heartily happy and contented in uncle Mere 
 dith s home, with Noll for her constant companion and 
 sister.
 
 198 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 Hi did not return to New York at the end of the 
 first year of her married life. Mr. Donaldson was not 
 well, and did not like to leave his Highland home to 
 spend the winter in another country. So, as soon 
 as spring opened, Mrs. Meredith and Sophy sailed 
 for Scotland, to visit Ri. They were scarcely missed 
 by Noll and Eva. Minnie True and several other 
 sensible and pleasant girls, whom they came to know 
 in their new school, formed a different and far more de 
 lightful circle of acquaintances. Often they spent their 
 evenings in the library with Mr. Meredith, who always 
 welcomed them and enjoyed their chat. If he had 
 writing or reading that must be done, the girls took 
 their books or work, and refrained from disturbing him ; 
 but in order to do this, utter silence was not enjoined. 
 Mrs. Meredith spent some months in European travel. 
 Her return gave the quiet life of the girls one of those 
 pleasant days of change and excitement that act as 
 freshener upon many that both precede and follow. 
 Mrs. Meredith had found Ri homesick and discontented, 
 but she brightened with the visit and the trip through 
 Europe, on which she accompanied them, and at last 
 remained in her old Scotch home, to gratify her doting 
 husband, instead of returning to New York for the 
 winter, as her mother rather urged she should. Jack 
 still tarried in the west, and gave good accounts of- a 
 flourishing practice he was securing in Chicago. He
 
 RESUME. 199 
 
 wrote occasional generalizing sort of letters to his 
 parents. To Noll he wrote regularly, and, as he de 
 clared, whether he had anything to say or not. Jack 
 and Charley were much together, and their letters were 
 equally interesting to both girls. So it canie to be a 
 fashion for each to read the other s letters. It was 
 another bond of sympathy and union between them. 
 
 " Letter from Jack," said Noll, returning from the 
 letter-box, whither she had hastened on hearing the 
 
 Eva looked up with a smile of interest ; then re 
 turned to the volume of Schiller she was reading, to 
 wait patiently for her turn at the letter. Noll was a 
 long time reading it. There was only one sheet. Jack 
 did not write such long letters as Charley. At last 
 Noll handed it to Eva, and said, with serious face, 
 " There s real news in this." Eva, too, read it through 
 in silence. On the first page he blurted forth, man- 
 fashion, his news; and then, without further words 
 upon the important item, he went rambling away about 
 minor matters of small interest after his first announce 
 ment. 
 
 " Now, Evvy, tell me about Phccbe," said Noll, when 
 Eva laid aside the letter and looked up. " You ve only 
 mentioned her once or twice. Jack has been very 
 mum about her heretofore, I might have guessed 
 something from his very silence, and Charley only
 
 200 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 I 
 
 occasionally alludes to her. Now I must know all 
 about her." 
 
 " The most I know of her is what I saw when she 
 was east with uncle Martyn, just before I came here. 
 She is three years older than I." 
 
 " Twenty. And Jack is twenty-five. That will do 
 very well ; " and Noll nodded approval so far. 
 
 " She is sensible as sensible as you are." 
 
 Pshaw ! " 
 
 , "And practical and helpful. She seemed tome 
 one of the thoroughly helpful kind of people." 
 
 " They are the best kind." 
 
 " I am sure you will like Phcebe. And I think 
 I truly think," Eva added, slowly and sagely, "she is 
 good enough for your Jack ; and that is saying a great 
 
 
 
 deal, you know." 
 
 " I suppose I must take your word for it," returned 
 Noll. " Jack used to have such a way of taking it for 
 granted that women were, by nature, irredeemably 
 foolish, that I always hoped I should be able to have a 
 little care over him about choosing his wife. I believe 
 there are a few a very few sensible women. Pity 
 there aren t more." 
 
 " There ll be one more when you get along to wo 
 man s estate." 
 
 " And I wanted Jack should be sure to get one of 
 them. Because I think he deserves to."
 
 RESUME. 201 
 
 " So he does. But, Noll, I think Jack would have 
 died an old bachelor, before he could have married one 
 of the foolish kind of women ; notwithstanding he was 
 always so good-natured and amiable to them." 
 
 " I know it was his way to be considerate charita 
 ble to hysterics and all sorts of vagaries and weaknesses. 
 And it is a very good trait in a doctor." 
 
 " So I thought when he took care of me after Ri s 
 wedding." 
 
 " Have you finished translating that poem ?" 
 
 " Not quite. When it is done I will read it to you." 
 
 "It s fine to have somebody to coach me, as col 
 lege boys say, on German literature. I should have 
 precious little time for English authors, if I had to dig 
 out all the best foreign ones myself." 
 
 "And it s fine for me to read over my translations to 
 some one who has an ear for the rhetoric and composi 
 tion of them," replied Eva; and the girls returned to 
 their books. 
 
 Eva was shocked at her aunt Matilda s eager inqui 
 ries concerning Mr. Martyn s wealth, the number of his 
 children, &c., while her single question concerning 
 Phoebe herself was the rather minor one of her beauty. 
 But Noll only said, philosophically, " That s ma s way, 
 you know. She can t be expected to ask about what 
 she doesfi t know or care anything about. I believe if 
 pa had been a dragon, and had had more money than
 
 202 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 any of her other suitors, she would have married him 
 all the same, and been just as well satisfied as she is 
 now." 
 
 "How can you speak so, Xoll?" 
 
 " Because it s true, dear." 
 
 " But your own mother ! " 
 
 " I don t know about that," said Noll, with a comical 
 face, and her head turned quizzically on one side. "Jack 
 and I are father s children. Ri and Sophy are ma s. 
 Somehow they never shared us equally, but just divided 
 up the family in that way. It s lucky there happened 
 to be an even number of us. I should pity the odd 
 one." 
 
 Eva could not help laughing ; and yet these half 
 comic, half bitter sayings^of Noll always grieved her. 
 
 " Waters !" and old Mr. Cobden s round pink head, 
 with its fringe of grayish-white hair, was popped from 
 his little sanctum into the busy counting-room. The 
 young man quickly answered the summons, and drew 
 a chair to the table, opposite his uncle. 
 
 " Dick, my boy," said the old gentleman, pleasantly, 
 " I want to have a little talk with you about some 
 matters that pertain to business, and some that don t, 
 exactly." 
 
 "Yes, sir." Dick bowed and leaned his elbow com 
 fortably upon the table, while he looked steadily and 
 unwinkingly into his uncle s face.
 
 KESUME. 203 
 
 Mr. Cobden fidgeted in his chair, and began in ar 
 gumentative manner. " Since Bragg s very sad and 
 untimely end a melancholy affair, that I ve pen 
 sioned his widow. Did I tell you ? " 
 
 " I m glad you have, sir. Mr. Bragg was shrewd in 
 business ; and, if only he had not forgotten the proper 
 respect to be paid to the meum and tuum of transac 
 tions, he would have been invaluable. It will be diffi 
 cult to make good his place in the firm." 
 
 " I can t fill it. I can t undertake his work. I am 
 getting too old too well, I don t want to drive 
 myself, now that there is no need of it." 
 
 " Certainly not." 
 
 " But, as you say, it would be difficult and undesira 
 ble I should say every way undesirable to attempt 
 to take in another partner in his place. He would 
 probably be a stranger perhaps unacquainted with 
 the business certainly unacquainted with our busi 
 ness. I don t like itr 
 
 Mr. Cobden was silent; and Dick, perceiving the 
 drift of his talk, gave him a gentle jog. " Of course 
 you do not think of entering more into the business 
 yourself." 
 
 " No ; but I was thinking of that is, it had oc 
 curred to me to draft young Saunders into the firm. 
 His place could easily be supplied. In that case you 
 would be at liberty to attend to Bragg s share of the
 
 204 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 business ; young Saunders, of course, to take your 
 present position, as junior partner. How does that 
 look to you ? " and Mr. Cobden leaned back in his arm 
 chair, and regarded Dick complacently over the tips of 
 his fingers. 
 
 " Very good. Saunders is the best man in the em- 
 ploy." 
 
 " You agree ? " 
 
 " Yes, certainly. It secures Saunders, and gives me 
 a much better position." 
 
 " That s what I wish to do. In a few years the 
 whole concern must devolve upon you. I want to give 
 you a clear knowledge of every part of its manage 
 ment. You have shown good judgment, good business 
 abilities, and have been every way a reliable man. 
 Now I want to see you under full sail in life, before I 
 leave you." The old man thoughtfully tapped on the 
 table with his gold bowed eye-glass, and gazed out 
 the cramped window upon a cheerful brick wall, 
 opposite. 
 
 It was all true. "Whatever he might be in some re 
 spects, Dick Waters was a reliable business man. His 
 good uncle s confidence had never been slighted or 
 dishonored. In old Mr. Cobden s eyes he was a most 
 worthy and estimable young man. 
 
 " I want you to get married, Dick, my boy," the old 
 man recommenced rather abruptly. " I know you are
 
 KESUME. 205 
 
 not very old yet ; but young marriages are usually the 
 happiest, and you are twenty-four isn t it?" 
 
 " Not quite," returned Dick, with an uncomfortable 
 movement in his chair. " Whom do you wish me to 
 marry?" 
 
 " I didn t intend to settle that question for you. Of 
 coiirse you have your preferences already among the 
 young ladies you meet. I could name some of them, but 
 I would rather I would decidedly prefer you should 
 choose for yourself choose for yourself, my boy." 
 
 Dick made good use of the plenteous time allowed 
 him by the old gentleman s moderate speech. He had 
 no objections to being married, if it helped him on in 
 the world. He was ambitious. He knew his uncle 
 would have no wish to see him begin life in any hum 
 bler style than the old man himself would leave it. 
 He would like to be the owner of an elegant house, 
 and maintain a correspondingly elegant establishment 
 throughout. He knew that he was to be chief heir to 
 all his uncle s wealth. It only remained to choose his 
 wife. Was it strange that among the many prettier 
 and lovelier girls of his acquaintance his first thought 
 should be of Sophy Meredith ? He felt quite sure that 
 he could bring to bear upon her such reasoning as 
 would secure him from failure in his suit; and perhaps 
 this was the secret of his selection. He had met her 
 often and everywhere in the past t hree winters. She
 
 206 EVA KOBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 had not avoided him, but had improved every opportu 
 nity to express her dislike for him. Perhaps it was 
 only a touch of contrariness that made him instantly 
 imagine what fun it would be to marry Sophy Mere 
 dith in spite of herself. " I wasn t ready to marry 
 her," he thought, "when she wanted to elope with me. 
 Now I am ready, and she shall be;" and his black eyes 
 had a merry sparkle, as he further remembered that 
 the connection must appear every way desirable to the 
 elders of both parties. 
 
 " I have very little hope of success," he said, modest 
 ly, " if I were to follow out my own preference." 
 
 "How so? how so ?" cried Mr. Cobden, eagerly. 
 
 " I think Sophy Meredith does not exactly favor me," 
 he said, hesitatingly. 
 
 Ah ! if the old gentleman had seen the wicked snap 
 in Dick Waters sharp eyes as he made this confession ! 
 
 " Sophy Meredith, is it? Ah, ha! Well, at least 
 she hasn t favored any other young man, I believe." 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Ah, well ! I ll just open the way for you a bit, by 
 hinting the matter to her father. He is a fine man, 
 Mr. Meredith ; it is a fine family all through. This 
 daughter isn t quite so handsome as the other one was, 
 but I suppose she is all the better, on acquaintance, eh, 
 Dick ! " and the old gentleman reached for his walking- 
 stick to punch Dick in the leg, by way of a little pleas 
 ant raillery.
 
 RESUM. 207 
 
 " "Wouldn t it be better for me to call upon Mr. 
 Meredith ? " said Dick, drawing himself away from 
 the jocose walking-stick, and wearing an unusually 
 sober face. lie realized that he was " in for it," now. 
 
 " Certainly, certainly. I shall only give him a 
 friendly call, and let him know, by the way, that you 
 are coming. No harm in that, I suppose." 
 
 " Not the least," gravely replied Dick. H.e enter 
 tained a very wholesome respect for Mr. Meredith, and 
 rather dreaded to walk in and ask him for his daughter. 
 So his uncle s proffer was very welcome. 
 
 All this had happened at the close of Sophy s third 
 winter in society. To tell the unvarnished truth, 
 Sophy s appearance had been much less of a success 
 than Ri s. Her face had no beauty to hold admirers 
 by the eyelids, though she looked well when hand 
 somely dressed and animated with the excitement of the 
 evening. She had none of Ri s sweetness to delight 
 
 O O 
 
 those who always applaud "good temper in a woman." 
 But she had what Hi never did have, a ready tongue, 
 that was quick at repartee, and sometimes also sharp. 
 For this reason she was shunned by many who feared 
 the weapon. But it had been no terror to Dick 
 Waters. He enjoyed calling out this gift, and hearing 
 Sophy wield it ; but he took care to warn her, by a 
 few sharp hits in her own kind of warfare, that it was 
 not wise for her to assail him. Thus Sophy had passed
 
 208 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION". 
 
 through three seasons without having a single offer, or 
 even, to her own knowledge, a single lover. Her 
 failure to win the admiration she craved had made 
 these years one long series of disappointments, and her 
 temper had not improved under the ordeal. There 
 was a .chaotic conflict of surprise, delight, wonder, and 
 dread, in Sophy s heart, when her mother told her that 
 her father had received proposals for her hand, and had 
 given his consent that the young man should address 
 her. She only sat silent, and tried to look indifferent. 
 
 " Haven t you the slightest interest in the matter ? " 
 asked her mother, with some pique at her reception of 
 what she considered a very happy event. 
 
 " It certainly isn t Mr. Salsby. I know he doesn t 
 care anything about me. So what is there to be inter 
 ested in ? " 
 
 " Pshaw ! Mr. Salsby isn t the only young man in 
 the world. I think this match fully as desirable as 
 Ri s was." 
 
 " That might easily be. But after Ri gave up Mor 
 timer Salsby, I just set my heart on getting him. He 
 is the very best match there is to be made ; and it s 
 a pity if we can t have him in the family, between 
 us all." 
 
 " There s !S~oll to come yet." 
 
 " A pretty piece she ll be in society ! A regular book 
 worm, with leanings toward strong-mindedness! No,
 
 EESUM. 209 
 
 
 
 the game is over if I give it up. I don t envy you 
 your next attempt at bringing out a daughter!" 
 
 Mrs/ Meredith had a vague feeling that perhaps Noll 
 could make herself more agreeable than Sophy ever 
 did. But she refrained from saying so. 
 
 " Well, who is this young suitor ? " Sophy asked at 
 length. 
 
 " O, you want to know, after all ! It is young Mr. 
 Waters a very likely young man, too." 
 
 Dick Waters ! " 
 
 " I wouldn t call him Dick, it is such a low, rough 
 name ! " 
 
 Sophy s head drooped over her embroidery. " Richie 
 Waters" was the name that came into her mind as a 
 substitute, and recalled the last time she had ever used 
 it, on the night of the projected elopement. A blush 
 of real shame came over her cheeks and forehead ; but 
 there was a brightness in her eyes that had not been 
 there before. 
 
 " What makes you so much surprised at it ? " asked 
 her mother. " I thought of him as soon as your father 
 began to tell me. He has been your most devoted 
 attendant ever since you came out. I used to think 
 he wanted Ri, though." 
 
 "I hadn t thought of him," said Sophy, quietly rising 
 and laying down .her work; " and now that I do think 
 of him, I don t like him, and shall not marry him." 
 14
 
 210 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 Then she beat a hasty retreat from Tier mother s expos 
 tulation and advice to her own room. There she 
 could and did have a good cry. Then she bathed her 
 face, and smiled to herself in the glass, as she re 
 arranged her hair. It was a proud thing to Sophy, that 
 Dick had asked for her. She felt it a triumph to refuse 
 him. But under all this she was wondering if he had 
 really come to love her. For Sophy, with all her spite 
 ful protestations, with all her ostentatious dislike, did, 
 *n the lowest depths of her heart, care for Diok Wa 
 ters. She always had cared for him. She admired his 
 sharp, keen face, even while she hated herself for doing 
 so. She gloried in his smartness and his business ad 
 vantages. She respected him because she feared him, 
 and could not frighten him with any of her sharp 
 words or ways. Xow was her time to be revenged by 
 refusing to marry him. It was very provoking that he 
 was called from the city, by business in the west, that 
 kept him absent six weeks, just at this interesting junc 
 ture. The weeks came round at last. But six weeks 
 of steady drain upon Sophy s patience, fortitude, and 
 >s >ite were anything but strengthing to these feelings. 
 On Dick s return he called at once, and sent up his 
 card for Sophy. What passed between them in the 
 silence and privacy of Mrs. Meredith s darkened parlor 
 was never known. But Sophy came forth with a daz 
 zling diamond on her finger, Dick Waters affianced 
 bride.
 
 RESUME. 211 
 
 In September there was again a grand wedding at 
 Mr. Meredith s house. Again, at Dick Waters urgent 
 invitation, Mortimer Salsby took his place, with Noll, 
 in the bridal party, while Eva was made comfortably 
 retired by a less prominent position than at Ri s wed 
 ding, with Frank True as her companion. Sophy 
 passed to a handsome house not far from her former 
 home. Everything that money could buy for her 
 seemed to surround her. Many a young lady of her 
 acquaintance thought her greatly to be envied. But 
 Noll said to Eva, in their own busy, happy room, " I 
 wonder what ever induced Sophy to marry Dick 
 Waters." 
 
 " I suppose Sophy likes him," was Eva s simple solu 
 tion of the mystery. 
 
 " But how could she, after all that elopement affair?" 
 
 " How could she before it, is the mystery to me," 
 said Eva. " If she could love such a man once, I sup 
 pose she can love him right through all the develop 
 ments of his character. And really, Noll, I think 
 Dick is coming out better, as a man, than he seemed 
 to promise. Perhaps we didn t see the best of him, 
 and Sophy did." 
 
 " I hope we saw the worst of him, and that there is 
 no more like it to come after." 
 
 " So do I!" and the girls turned back from the wed 
 ding interruption to their books and studies again.
 
 212 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 NOLL S WINTER. 
 
 " "1T7~ITAT do you suppose is the next movement 
 Y T in the Meredith programme ? " said Noll, in 
 a vexed tone, coming from her mother s boudoir, and 
 throwing herself heavily into her accustomed chair in 
 the airy school-room. 
 
 The old school-room had been rearranged, with Mr. 
 Meredith s assistance, according to the needs and de 
 sires of the two girls, and had become a favorite resort 
 for study, reading, and writing. Two commodious 
 writing-desks were placed in the best light at two of 
 the four large windows. A handsome book-case had 
 two shelves filled with Eva s Latin, French, and Ger 
 man granSruars and lexicons, treatises on general lan 
 guage, the ancient languages, and her chosen two 
 modern languages, and many foreign works, whose 
 translation had been the labor of these past years; 
 another shelf held Noll s books on rhetoric and com 
 position, by different authors, reviews and criticisms,
 
 NOLL S ,WINTEK. 213 
 
 dissertations upon criticism, and a few mode] volumes 
 by the most perfect writers. Other shelves were de 
 voted indiscriminately to works in English, French, 
 and German, that the girls had seen fit to read for 
 profit or amusement; and one forlorn-looking section, 
 at the very bottom, showed pairs of unhappy-looking 
 algebras, geometries, histories, grammars, astronomies, 
 geologies, chemistries, botanies, philosophies, physiolo 
 gies, and a pile of dejected old music books. The 
 girls had studied through limited treatises on each and 
 all these varied subjects, under the head of what Mrs. 
 .Hoffman .called desirable general education, taking, 
 each term, one study not particularly related to their 
 chosen course, till they had attained some acquaintance 
 with the various sciences and simpler mathematics. 
 A piano, an improvement on the rattling old affair Evu 
 had found there when she first came to aunt Matilda s, 
 stood in the room, and each still gave one hour a day 
 of her precious time to practice. The general educa 
 tional course, which they had often regarded as a 
 great bore, they began to perceive had really been a 
 desirable variety of study. It was now completed to 
 Mrs. Hoffman s entire satisfaction. All their time, 
 save the one hour of practising, was given unre 
 servedly to their favorite studies. 
 
 Eva did not at first reply to Noll s impatient ex 
 clamation. She sat bufiily writing out the paragraph
 
 214 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 of translation that was just then engaging her atten 
 tion. Finishing it with a swift scratch of her pen, she 
 looked up. "What is the next movement? Is aunt 
 Matilda going to visit Ri again ? " 
 
 "]STo, indeed! Would that Europe had been the 
 untroubled direction of her desires. Then I could 
 have wished her good speed, and gone on with my 
 business. No, it s a deal worse than that, Evvy, and 
 you ll feel as bad as I do, I m afraid." 
 
 "Do tell me what it is." 
 
 "You know it was my misfortune to be eighteen 
 last summer. I had a good mind to deny it, and de-f 
 dare I was only seventeen. But I suppose it wouldn t 
 have done any good, for ma would have the family 
 Bible to back her in her assertion." 
 
 " You are not going to come out are you ? " Eva 
 asked, in disappointed tones. 
 
 " I suppose I have got to do just that," replied Noll, 
 savagely. " The fact is, Evvy, I never thought much 
 about my coming out, because, between ourselves, I 
 did think Sophy would be an old maid. I expected 
 to live in delicious retirement to the ripe age of twen 
 ty-five, before I saw the nuptials of my sister Sophy, 
 and very likely not see them then. Perhaps, by that 
 time, ma would begin to give her up, and might bring 
 me out; but that would be a cheerless venture, for she 
 never had any hope of my being anything in society, 
 I am so shockingly odd ! "
 
 NOLL S WINTER. 215 
 
 " I don t see as it is going to be a very dreadful 
 thing for you, Noll. It will be lonesome for me, of 
 course ; but you will not quite forget me, if you are 
 * in society. If you choose, you can still get time for 
 some reading. You will have to give up writing, of 
 course." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 "Because, when you make long evenings and late 
 hours, you will not have nice, fresh, bright mornings 
 any longer. But I think, Noll, you know there s a 
 sweet kernel to every nut, if you only know how to 
 crack it, perhaps you will learn as much by the ex 
 perience you will have as you would to pore over your 
 books any more just at this time." 
 
 "What shall I learn?" 
 
 "Human nature. Think what a chance you will 
 have to see people! And really, Noll, seeing people 
 is just what you need now to make your long course 
 of book-study practical and useful. I am sure you 
 will not give yourself all up to the dress and vanity of 
 society. You will have your eyes open to see mani 
 festations of character all around you. So you can 
 consider your coming out as promotion into a higher 
 class from theoretical to practical instruction. You 
 will be carrying on your course of study, only in a 
 little different manner." 
 
 Noll s face had been slowly losing its vexation,
 
 216 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 lighting and brightening as Eva proceeded. "I be 
 lieve you are right, Evvy. And I will continue my 
 studies, too, by coming up here an hour or so every 
 day, before dinner, and writing a little sketch of some 
 body or some event, to teach me delineation of the 
 characters I observe. That will be practical study, if 
 I am to write the book Minnie predicts, and it will 
 not do any harm to the professorship, you know." 
 
 Their professorships were standing jokes among the 
 two girls ; so both laughed at Xoll s consideration for 
 the prospects of hers. It was a sad trial to them to 
 be separated. It had been a thing tacitly understood 
 among them that they should continue on together at 
 school till Eva s five years were ended. Now, Eva 
 must have a full school-year alone. But Noll, receiv 
 ing the change in the new light of an excellent oppor 
 tunity for pursuing her favorite studies under a new 
 phase, entered into the preparations for her debut with 
 cheerfulness and interest that quite astonished and de 
 lighted Mrs. Meredith, after her first stormy expostula 
 tions. She insisted upon planning her own costumes, 
 and did it in such odd and fantastic styles as quite 
 frightened her mother. Yet the singular robes she 
 ordered came from the hands of the astonished mo 
 diste wonders of originality and beauty, and were pro 
 fusely admired by the fashion-loving mother and 
 fashionable mantua-maker. They were even copied 
 by less gifted girls, as models of taste and style.
 
 NOLL S WINTER. 217 
 
 If Mrs. Meredith had been proud of the admiration 
 bestowed upon Ri s beauty, and satisfied with the 
 attention paid her less attractive daughter Sophy, she 
 was fated to be utterly surprised and delighted at the 
 decided sensation everywhere created by Noll. She 
 had rather dreaded Noll s coming out, but found her 
 self most agreeably disappointed by her complete and 
 inexplicable success. She could not understand it. 
 Noll was not handsome not to be compared with 
 Ri. Yet she was infinitely more admired by gentle 
 men, copied and envied by ladies. Noll s own philo 
 sophical explanation of the social phenomenon was, that 
 she "supposed they cared for her just because she did 
 not care a fig for them." But Eva said, in the undis 
 turbed quiet of the old school-room, where she now 
 spent so many lonely, busy, but not unhappy hours, 
 " It is because Noll has her true life outside and above 
 fashionable follies ; because she does not care for petty 
 vanities and jealousies, but is a true, noble woman, 
 with an earnest purpose in her life." The hours that 
 Noll spent in the school-room were now those of Eva s 
 keenest enjoyment. It was so pleasant to see her 
 there again, for Eva missed her sadly ! so pleasant 
 to hear the merry scraps she had to tell of people she 
 met, and her shrewd conjectures concerning them ! 
 But not every day could she escape from the con 
 tinual demands of society, the dress-maker, and her 
 mother.
 
 218 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 Noll was social by instinct, merry and good-humored 
 by natural disposition. Since she no longer felt it a 
 waste of time, she threw herself joyfully into the 
 gayety and excitement of her new position, taking 
 the pleasure as it came, and avoiding all unpleasant 
 things by her amiability and great-heartedness. Mrs. 
 Meredith wondered and smiled at her ; but after the 
 certainty that Noll was to be a success, she almost 
 ceased to advise, guard, or warn her. She felt that 
 Noll s method was of a kind not within her province, 
 and she could only let her follow it out after her own 
 fashion, trusting to its promising commencement for 
 an equally satisfactory conclusion. Indeed, she felt 
 justified in giving rein to her wildest hopes; for was 
 not Mr. Salsby Noll s most constant companion ? Did 
 he ever once let an evening pass without a dance with 
 Noll, and a long talk after it in some convenient seclu 
 sion ? Did he not continually linger at her side, even 
 when she was busied in conversation with others, 
 listening with attentive ear, but feigned abstraction, to 
 all her merry speeches, light talk, and occasional ear 
 nest words ? What did all these things mean, if not 
 that Mortimer Salsby would yet, as Sophy had said, 
 "come into the family"? Meanwhile Mr. Salsby no 
 longer lavished his former attentions upon Mrs. Mere 
 dith, nor did he appear eager to call upon Mr. Mere 
 dith. The season passed on, and in due time closed.
 
 NOLL S WIKTEK. 219 
 
 The last party had been given. The warm spring air 
 was getting sultry. Even the opera and theatre boxes 
 were deserted. There was no further hope, in Mrs. 
 Meredith s heart, of anything from Mr. Salsby this 
 year. A little confidential chat in the school-room, a 
 few weeks earlier, would have revealed a state of af 
 fairs, had Mrs. Meredith s ears been within hearing 
 distance, that would probably have driven that lady 
 nearly frantic. 
 
 "Put away your book, and talk with me, Evvy," 
 said Noll, as she came wearily in, with unusually 
 heavy eyes, after one of the last gay evenings of the 
 season. 
 
 Eva came to the sofa beside her, took her head in 
 her cool, soft little hands, and soothed her hot 
 temples. 
 
 "I ve been doing something taking matters into 
 my own hands ; and I want you to tell me if I did 
 right, you are such a true and sure little conscience 
 for me." 
 
 " Some things belong in our own hands, and some 
 do not. Which have you been meddling with ? " 
 
 " That s what I hardly know myself. I think it is 
 my own affair; but I suppose ma would have preferred 
 to superintend the matter for me, particularly as she 
 would probably have altered the whole, and had it 
 come out quite differently."
 
 220 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 "But you are sure your way was right?" 
 
 " Yes ; so sure that I followed it. Last night I was 
 in the conservatory, after the German, with Mr. Salsby. 
 He almost always takes me off somewhere for a rest 
 and talk after dancing. I had rather have a good talk 
 with him than a dance ; so I don t mind if I miss a 
 few sets." 
 
 "What do you talk about?" 
 
 " O, all sorts of interesting and sensible things. He 
 has a gift for making every subject amusing. Then he 
 has travelled, and read everything. Do you remember 
 those beautiful little German tales, that I persisted in 
 wading through in the original, instead of using your 
 translation ? I suppose he sent them to me, though he 
 uever acknowledged it. I was ashamed not to read 
 them for myself in the German. All that little cluster 
 of new books upon the second shelf, that you so 
 admired my taste and sagacity in selecting, are from 
 him, I suppose ; also the beautiful Easter bouquet, 
 that made you exclaim at my extravagance. He never 
 sends any clew with his gifts, nor ever acknowledges 
 that he is the donor, save by a little gleam of pleasure 
 in his eyes when I express my enjoyment of them, and 
 a sudden dive into another subject of conversation." 
 
 Noll was silent so long, with her head lying in Eva s 
 lap, luxuriating in the pleasant movements of the little 
 fingers over her temples and through her heavy, wavy
 
 NOLL S WIKTER. 221 
 
 hair, her eyes half shut, and a vague smile on her 
 parted lips, that Eva said, at length, "You like him, 
 Nolly dear don t you ? " 
 
 " O, yes ; of course I do. If I hadn t, I couldn t 
 have enjoyed his gifts and his companionship so 
 much," returned Noll, in a commonplace tone, re 
 suming the thread of her story. " But last night, I 
 was going to tell you, he took up a very different 
 strain." 
 
 Another silence, till Eva said, "Well?" 
 
 " You know what it was, Evvy. He told me he 
 didn t care for anybody else in the world but me ; 
 and he wanted me to marry him." 
 
 " And what did you say ? " 
 
 I ll tell you what I thought, Evvy. If he didn t 
 care for any one but me, he ought to ! It s a dreadful 
 poor plan to be all bound up in one person. But I 
 didn t say just that. He asked me if I didn t care for 
 him, because he certainly had thought I did. I said, 
 * yes, I thought him one of the finest men I had ever 
 known; whereupon he was going to receive me in 
 both arms, only I didn t go, which very much surprised 
 him. Then I went on to say that there were a good 
 many people and things that I cared for besides him. 
 I hoped there always would be. He said he should 
 not be jealous, and that set me laughing, and made 
 him very sober. Well, it all ended by my telling him
 
 222 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 just why I should never marry him, nor probably any 
 one else, for that matter." 
 
 " Why is it ? " asked Eva, somewhat astonished at 
 this avowal. 
 
 "Partly because he doesn t care for anything but 
 me ; because he has no earnest purpose, no good 
 object before him in life. He dawdles, Evvy, forever 
 dawdles his whole life long ! You know he has studied, 
 travelled, read, and thought he has really thought a 
 great deal ; but he has never done any single thing in 
 his whole life." 
 
 " It has not been a very long life yet, you know," 
 suggested Eva. 
 
 "How long?" 
 
 "Twenty-six, I believe. He was only twenty-one 
 when he came home to Campfields from Europe." 
 
 "Is it possible! I thought he must be over thirty." 
 
 "He doesn t look as old as that." 
 
 "No; but I supposed him to be in a remarkable 
 state of preservation, as they say of old beauties." 
 
 " He may start up, and be good for something yet." 
 
 "I sincerely hope he may," said Noll, with a little 
 sigh. "It has always seemed such a pity to see him, 
 an utter waste of so much good material and good 
 culture, doing not an atom of good in the world, and 
 apparently having no aim beyond being the coveted 
 son-in-law of all the mammas of his extensive ac 
 quaintance."
 
 NOLL S WINTER. 223 
 
 "I think he will go to work now, on the strength of 
 your advice and example." 
 
 "Nonsense, Evvy ! Don t be foolish! Are you go 
 ing to have him come triumphantly round, at the end 
 of the next semi-decade, a miracle of benevolent ex 
 ertions, and marry me, after all? That s cheap novel 
 trash ! Real-moral-little-story-like ! Men don t do so, 
 in real life, outside of books. He suggested reforma 
 tion to buy off my decision ; but I wouldn t hear of it. 
 I told him he might reform or not, as his own inclina 
 tion and good sense should dictate, but he needn t 
 do it on my account. I remembered what you said of 
 Dick and Sophy; and I told him, as he had made his 
 first unbiased choice of mere pleasure in life, so I de 
 cided against him. Whatever he might do henceforth 
 would have its effect upon his own future happiness 
 and usefulness ; but it could not alter the fact he had 
 fully established by the past years of his life, that his 
 natural predilections are for idleness rather than ef 
 fort, for admiration rather than usefulness." 
 
 " I think you were rather hard," said Eva, gently and 
 hesitatingly, as Noll ceased. 
 
 "Was I, Evvy?" cried Noll, in a mournful tone. 
 "Well, I thought it was right. I am sure I was right 
 in my decision. I am sorry if I was too severe in my 
 way of giving it." 
 
 "Perhaps not too severe. You could better judge
 
 224 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 what to say, at the time, than I can, without the at 
 tending circumstances, and with very little acquaint 
 ance with Mr. Salsby." 
 
 Noll drew herself up, and went away to her own 
 room, where she locked the door, and cried. Not that 
 she repented her choice; not that she even remem 
 bered the enviable position of Mortimer Salsby s wife ; 
 but because he was cultivated, refined, lovable, a man 
 not to be found in every thousand ; she might have 
 loved him so thoroughly, and it was such a pity! 
 " Yet," she whispered, as she checked her grief, and set 
 herself busily to work, " It is the only right way."
 
 CHABLEY S VISIT. 225 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 CHARLEY S VISIT. 
 
 THE long, bright days of June slipped by, bringing 
 Eva s last term of school life rapidly toward a 
 close. Mrs. Meredith was planning a gay summer 
 season, but had not decided what watering-place 
 should be illumined by her presence with her ad 
 mired daughter Noll. But daughter Noll was quietly 
 frustrating all her expectations. On one of these 
 pleasant June evenings, she crept into the library, 
 and stood by her father s chair. 
 
 "What is it, my girl?" asked Mr. Meredith, as he 
 drew her upon his knee, feeling that she had come 
 freighted with something to say. 
 
 "I ve had a letter from Jack." 
 
 "Well, what does he say?" 
 
 "He is quite settled now in his new home, and it is 
 only a few doors from Eva s uncle Martyn." 
 
 "That s convenient and comfortable. I suppose he 
 is as happy as he ought to be." 
 15
 
 225 EVA KOBEETS EDUCATION. 
 
 "O, yes. He says he shall be beyond wishing for 
 anything, if only " Noll hesitated. 
 
 "There s always something wanting to complete 
 human happiness. What does he think he wants?" 
 
 " He writes that I really must come out there, when 
 Charley goes back with Eva. And I should so like to 
 go, father ! " said Noll, eagerly. 
 
 " That would upset your mother s proposed summer 
 campaign wouldn t it ? " 
 
 "Yes, and I want to upset it, for I don t want to go 
 with her. I ve been rushing about all winter, and now 
 I am tired of it. Going out there with Eva and Char 
 ley, to visit Jack and Phoebe, will be such a happy, 
 home-sort of time ! " 
 
 Air. Meredith sighed, and Noll wished she had not 
 said the last words. 
 
 " I suppose you can go, my girl. And perhaps it 
 will be the best thrhg for you to do." 
 
 Noll caressed her father s white temples, and remem 
 bered how lonely the house must seem to him when all 
 the younger ones were gone. But she could not tell 
 him so. She discussed all plans, told all her affairs of 
 real consequence to him; but sentiment was a kind of 
 conversational dish she never offered her father, from 
 an instinctive feeling that it would not be agreeable. 
 
 One rainy July day, up the familiar steps came a 
 manly tread; and while the footman arranged a drip-
 
 CHARLEY S RETURN. 227.
 
 CHARLEY S VISIT. 227 
 
 ping umbrella in the rack, and the visitor passed 
 through the open parlor door, Noll sprang along the 
 hall. She glanced at the card in the footman s hand, 
 and whispered, "Don t carry that up just now." Then 
 she stood in the parlor, looking up, with mingled sur 
 prise and doubt, into the bearded face, until she sud 
 denly recognized the unchanged blue eyes. 
 
 " Charley Roberts ! " she cried. " How you are be- 
 whiskered ! Evvy is up in the school-room. Come 
 with me. I want to see if she will recognize you 
 any quicker than I did. I know she does not expect 
 you till next week." 
 
 Noll tripped up the stairs, eagerly followed by Char 
 ley. Eva sat bending over her desk, busy with her 
 last letter to him, as her commencement announced. 
 She scarcely looked up as Noll entered. But when a 
 pair of strong arms folded themselves around her, 
 lifting her out of her chair, and a dear, though rather 
 gruffly-unfamiliar voice, said, " Terribly busy, Evalina 
 Fairykin ? " close by her ear, she twisted herself about 
 in the welcome embrace, with a joyful, "O!" clasped 
 her own arms upon the shoulders she could but just 
 reach, and kissed Charley s dear, kindly face till the 
 tears came dripping over her own, and she had to stop 
 for a little weep upon his bosom. She never thought 
 to mention the reddish-brown mustache and beard 
 that had first caught Noll s attention. Noll had
 
 228 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 slipped out of the room, but she returned half an 
 hour later to find Eva hugged into Charley s lap, with 
 both arms still about his neck, and wearing the hap 
 piest face she had ever seen. 
 
 "You are going back with us, I hope, Noll," said 
 Charley. "Jack told me he wrote for you to come, 
 and you have not objected." 
 
 " I expect to go with you, though ma is dreadfully 
 cut up about it, and quite refuses to be comforted." 
 
 " Leaving Noll was the one sad thing to me about 
 going," said Eva. " Now I shall be perfectly happy 
 and contented at the west." 
 
 " You were quite sorry to leave school," suggested 
 Noll. 
 
 " I was sorry, just as I am sorry at leaving my pleas 
 ant work. Yet I am glad, because it is completed ; 
 and there is always satisfaction in reaching the end 
 that one has been toiling toward for a long time. Be 
 sides, Noll left a year ago, and Minnie leaves with me ; 
 so it would be lonely work to keep on at school.". 
 
 " What is Minnie going to do next? I suppose she 
 has some busy plan on foot," said Charley. 
 
 "She will continue giving music lessons at Mrs. 
 Hoffman s school, as she has for a year past. She has 
 composed airs for several pretty ballads, which have 
 sold well. But she is not satisfied with her own com 
 positions. She says they are fearfully tame beside the
 
 CHARLEY S VISIT. 229 
 
 glorious works of the masters, and she prefers learning 
 to express real music, to helping flood the world with 
 weak tunes of no real value." 
 
 " She is a regular devotee to her chosen art," said 
 Noll. 
 
 " I think she is mistaken," continued Eva, " in feel 
 ing that her pretty little airs are worthless, because 
 they do not bear comparison with the great masters. 
 They give pleasure and delight to many people who 
 never hear the grander music, and who would not 
 appreciate it if they did." 
 
 " So I think," said Charley, gravely, letting Eva 
 slide gently to her feet, while he crossed one knee 
 over the other, and stared straight into the empty 
 grate. 
 
 " Why don t you inquire after our professions ? " 
 asked Noll. 
 
 "Sure enough! Tell me all about them," replied 
 Charley, still a little abstracted. 
 
 "Eva is looking for a position as professor of modern 
 languages in some great western college, as yet un 
 founded ; while I am to flourish in the same institution 
 in the department of belles-lettres." 
 
 "O, Noll, you know I m not," said Eva. 
 
 "We shall want Fay Featherly at home, to keep 
 house for uncle Martyn and me, now Phosbe is gone," 
 said Charley.
 
 230 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION". 
 
 " That may he a good place for her, just at present, 
 until the college is founded ; but then you ll be get 
 ting married, or perhaps your uncle Alartyn will, and 
 you ll not want her after that." 
 
 Charley blushed, and grew uncomfortable ; but Noll 
 proceeded, shaking* her head, "I know all about it, for 
 I used to want to keep house for my brother Jack ; but 
 he always told me flatly that he was going to be mar 
 ried, and should not need my services. I hope you 
 have been equally sincere with Eva, and not stimu 
 lated in her any false hopes in that direction." 
 Though Noll tried to say it all in comic strain, 
 there did so strong a thread of earnestness run 
 through her words as to make Charley turn a con 
 science-smitten face toward Eva. But Eva was look 
 ing straight at Noll, and did not see it. 
 
 " You and Jack have not grown up and grown to 
 gether, as Charley and I did," she said. " Of course 
 Charley will get married some time, I hope. But he 
 will not want to be rid of me on that account. And 
 then, you know, besides " Eva hesitated, and the 
 pink slowly deepened in her cheeks. 
 
 " Exactly," laughed Charley; "Eva Earnest will be 
 married herself some day." 
 
 " "Well, to be sure, that makes a difference," returned 
 Noll, gravely ; and somehow there came such a hurt 
 and heartsick look in the corners of Noll s pleasant
 
 CHARLEY S VISIT. 231 
 
 mouth, that Charley, too, grew sober, and wondered 
 what he could have said to grieve her. But Eva in 
 terrupted by sending him off to dress for dinner, tell 
 ing him his coat was very damp, his linen quite dis 
 reputable, and his hands really dingy. 
 
 Charley spent many days in visiting his old school 
 mates and acquaintances. He and Eva made a trip to 
 Campfields, where they found place and people very 
 much as we last saw them. Little Nora Craig was 
 grown into a pretty four-year-old child, and a fat, roll 
 ing boy of two rejoiced in the inheritance of his 
 father s name, seemingly the only endowment he had 
 received from that worthy man. James had been sick, 
 but was now considered convalescent. The day spent 
 at Campfields was one of the pleasantest of Charley s 
 eastern visit. His old friends, the Trues, and Eva, re 
 ceived about an equal share of his time. Frank s 
 studies were just completed, and he was" about enter 
 ing upon the practice of law. Mrs. True still lived in 
 the handsome house where Charley had first known 
 them, but it hardly seemed the same place to him. 
 The parlors were closed, and seldom or never used. 
 The library had become a study for Frank and Minnie. 
 Mrs. True s boudoir was her usual sitting-room ; a little 
 breakfast-room the habitual dining-room. More than 
 half the large house was unoccupied. Frank was ab 
 sent much of the time, and two servants were amply
 
 232 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 sufficient for the little remnant of the family. It 
 touched Charley deeply to see the changed life of 
 his dear old friends. In one of the long, rambling 
 walks through the artful wildernesses of Central Park, 
 which he and Frank often took together, he spoke of 
 Mrs. True s altered life. 
 
 "Mother has never cared for society since father 
 died. And besides," said Frank, with characteristic 
 candor, " we are poor now, and that makes a world of 
 difference, as far as society is concerned." 
 
 " Comparatively poor, you mean. Not poor as we 
 were when you came to see us at Campfields." 
 
 "Do you know, Charley, I didn t half understand 
 you then ? I thought you were putting on haughty 
 airs, for fear I should patronize you." 
 
 "I didn t see how to explain my position to you. I 
 knew you did not know what to think of me." 
 
 " Now," said Frank, after a pause, " I am going to set 
 my folks out of penury, just as you did yours." 
 
 " I hope you will succeed a great deal better than 
 I did." 
 
 " I ought to, as I have let them wait for me to grow 
 up, and prepare myself for the bar. I hope to achieve 
 more in the abstract amount of money, but not more 
 in comparison with my age and advantages." 
 
 "And what do you mean to do with your wealth? 
 Your mother and Minnie will hardly wish to enter 
 fashionable society. What will you do for them?"
 
 CHAELEY S VISIT. 233 
 
 " First, prevail upon mother to give up that odious 
 fine sewing, that she takes in to provide herself with 
 pocket money." 
 
 "Does she!" exclaimed Charley. "That s just 
 what my mother used to do," he added, as an offset 
 to his surprise. 
 
 " I shaM see that her purse is well filled all the time, 
 and then, with Minnie to back me, commence a sys 
 tematic course of teasing her to give up the sewing. 
 Minnie does not yet know that mother does it." 
 
 "I thought she didn t;" then, looking very much 
 aghast at the words that had escaped him, Charley 
 hurriedly asked, "What next?" 
 
 " I want a better piano for Minnie a real Steinway 
 Parlor Grand." 
 
 "Why don t you " Charley s mouth suddenly 
 shut with a snap over his half-formed question. 
 
 "Why don t I what?" 
 
 " Nothing. On second thought, I d rather you 
 wouldn t, so I ll not suggest it to you." 
 
 "I mean to give Minnie a chance for better musical 
 instruction than she has ever had yet," continued 
 Frank. " She has got her best lessons with what she 
 earned teaching beginners, and that s drudgery for her. 
 I shouldn t wonder if she came out a genius at music ; 
 but I wouldn t say so to any one but you, of course. 
 Come, I ve all but walked my legs off. Let s sit
 
 234 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 down," he added, perching himself upon an uncom 
 monly high bench. 
 
 "You haven t told me what you will do next, after 
 you have your mother and sister provided for." 
 Frank colored, began to whistle, broke off, and dis 
 covered a sudden interest in a bit of landscape. " I 
 want to hear what schemes you have for beyig a great 
 man some day," Charley persisted. 
 
 " O," came from Frank in so relieved a tone as to 
 make Charley look up, and detect the traces of his re 
 cent confusion. "Those plans are dim yet. Of course 
 I shall work along at my best, and hope to be tolerably 
 successful. If I am not, it shall not be for want of 
 trying. I can, at least, make a comfortable living for 
 myself and my own folks. I am sure I am equal to 
 that." 
 
 "Look here, Frank! " and there Charley broke 
 off, and sat pitching his knife into the seat between 
 them. 
 
 "Well?" interrogated Frank. 
 
 "Did you know, when I was a boy, I was in love 
 with your sister Mary?" 
 
 "I inferred that you were." 
 
 Charley shut his knife with a sharp click, and rising, 
 returned it to his pocket. "Well, I like Minnie best 
 now," he said, standing with face a little averted. "I 
 shall come east again in about three years, perhaps
 
 CHARLEY S VISIT. 235 
 
 less if she will go back with me. Maybe you ll have 
 nobody but your mother to take care of after that." 
 
 Frank listened with a wonderfully eager and de 
 lighted face, and then gave a long, low whistle. " I 
 haven t the least objection to the arrangement, my 
 dear fellow, only you " 
 
 " What ? " asked Charley, turning sharply, as he 
 hesitated. 
 
 Frank s face had grown uncomfortably red. "You 
 don t think half so much of Minnie as I do of your 
 Eva," he blurted out, suddenly. 
 
 "Pshaw! How do you know?" and Charley 
 grasped Frank s hand. "Then it is an even ex 
 change." 
 
 " I don t know what Eva thinks," stammered Frank. 
 
 " Well, I know that, years ago, when we were chil 
 dren, she used to be holding you up as a pattern boy, 
 and the best of all my schoolmates. She hasn t said 
 much about you of late years, except how relieved and 
 thankful she felt to find you in St. James Chapel, and 
 have your company home." 
 
 Frank s modest face brightened at this information. 
 " I am going in for being a great man, after all, Char 
 ley. I want to put Eva back in the same position her 
 mother used to hold." 
 
 " I am afraid she will not want that," returned Char 
 ley ; and the two boys went into detailed accounts of
 
 236 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 business prospects, as they rambled slowly home 
 ward. 
 
 On the day that Charley started for the west, with 
 Noll and Eva, a long, odd package was left by express 
 at Mrs. True s door for Minnie. Reposing within its 
 velvet-lined case was a beautiful little violin. Minnie 
 was in ecstasy with every inch of it the dark, rich 
 ly-polished surface, the delicate strings, with their 
 dainty, pearl-handled screws, its graceful shape, and 
 convenient size. When Frank came home, she ran to 
 tell him her joy and gratitude. He looked at the 
 beautiful gift, in its handsome case, and then at Min 
 nie s glowing, happy face. 
 
 " I am glad you are so pleased ; but don t thank me 
 for it." 
 
 "Well, then, I ll not thank you ; bat I want you to 
 know how delighted I am, and how perfectly happy 
 you have made me." 
 
 "Don t credit me with your happiness, either," he 
 replied, with an uncomfortable laugh. 
 
 "O, I never run an account with you in such mat 
 ters. I should only be keeping a record of my own 
 indebtedness." 
 
 " But I didn t send you the violin, Minnie." 
 
 "Why, Frank, you don t mean that?" 
 
 "Yes, I do. I never saw it before, and didn t 
 know you were to have it."
 
 CHARLEY S VISIT. 237 
 
 " Is it possible there s a mistake ? " said Minnie, 
 her cheek paling at the thought, as she hastily turned 
 over the wrappers. But no; there it was, plainly 
 enough, her own name, with street and number, all 
 correct. And Minnie lifted a blank face of wonder 
 and astonishment to Frank. " Who could have sent 
 it?" 
 
 " I think, my dear little sister, that on this particular 
 occasion you are unusually and remarkably stupid." 
 And Frank went laughing away, looking very wise in 
 his own mind. He knew now what Charley was on 
 the point of advising him to do for Minnie, and then 
 refused to suggest. But he forgot, while he laughed 
 at Minnie s bewilderment, that he would have been no 
 wiser than she, if he had been told no more.
 
 238 EVA KOBEKTS EDUCATION. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 HOME IN THE WEST. 
 
 IT was early in the morning .that Charley, Eva, and 
 Noll reached Chicago. They went directly to Mr. 
 Martyn s house. A solemn-looking, elderly woman, 
 whom Charley introduced as Mrs. Dole, received them, 
 and after they had refreshed themselves with a bath 
 and change of clothing, ushered them to a pleasant 
 dining-room, where an appetizing breakfast awaited 
 them. Charley slipped away to look in upon business, 
 after his six weeks absence, bidding the girls go to bed 
 and have a good rest; for Jack and Phoebe would be 
 round to dinner, and want to make an evening 
 of it. Noll and Eva didn t need any urging, as their 
 two nights upon the cars had been but little blessed 
 with sleep, and before twelve o clock were both lost in 
 a dreamless oblivion. Charley returned in a few hours, 
 threw himself upon a sofa, and followed the girls ex 
 cellent example. A huge bell, solemnly tolled in the 
 front hall for the space of thirty seconds, roused the
 
 HOME IN THE WEST. 239 
 
 half-awake travellers, and in a few minutes they were 
 assembled in the parlor, where they found Mr. Martyn 
 waiting to welcome them, and also Jack and Phoebe. 
 
 " This seems like home at last," said Mr. Martyn, 
 after dinner, as he settled himself comfortably in his 
 own great chair, and drew Eva to another beside him. 
 " Are you ready to throw up your books now, little 
 bird, and keep house for Charley and me ? " 
 
 " Not ready to throw up the books, but quite ready, 
 and very glad, to keep house for you, and make a beau 
 tiful real home for us all," replied Eva, a happy smile 
 lighting up her sweet face, as she remembered how her 
 mother had always made home for her and Charley, 
 and she had seemed to have none since that mother 
 left them. 
 
 Charley watched her, wondering why he had never 
 noticed before how much Eva looked like their mother. 
 
 " Not ready to give up books ? How s that ? I 
 thought that was in the agreement." 
 
 " You know that I have left school. I hope to do 
 something besides study books now. But you surely 
 do not wish me to give up reading, or even studying, 
 if I like to do so." 
 
 " O, no ; but girls do not generally care much for 
 books after they are grown up and have a house to 
 look after, or go out into society. Society very soon 
 spoils the studious vein out of girls."
 
 240 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 " Not always, uncle Martyn. It has not spoiled it 
 out of Noll," Eva asserted in a tone of proud triumph, 
 " and I don t mean it shall spoil it out of me." 
 
 " I want to know if Noll has kept up her studying 
 through the past winter," said Jack, from the window. 
 Pie was half hidden in the curtain, whence he watched, 
 with curious, scrutinizing eyes, the two girls he had 
 left, as he mockingly said, " at the commencement of 
 their professional education," four years ago. 
 
 " Yes, Jack, I have," replied Noll, with a touch of 
 honest pride. " Of course I couldn t be as regular and 
 systematic as before ; but I have never missed my 
 hours in the school-room more than two days in the 
 week." 
 
 "And once she gave up having a new dress, and 
 wore an old one to a grand party, to get her hours for 
 study," added Eva, while Noll blushed and muttered, 
 " That was nothing." 
 
 " Noll, I honor you ! " said Jack, heartily. " Phoebe 
 has often told me how sorry she was to give up her 
 studies when she was obliged to do so in order to be 
 housekeeper and nurse at home. I always thought 
 that evinced a wonderful devotion to literature. But 
 that any girl should stick to her books amid all the whirl 
 and gayety of a winter in the thickest of fashionable 
 life in New York, was an idea too preposterous to be 
 credited for a single instant. I don t understand how 
 it could be, now," he added, doubtfully.
 
 HOME IX THE WEST. 241 
 
 " It was because I studied with an aim at being use 
 ful, and not merely as a penance to be undergone* until 
 I should be chastened into fit shape for coming out," 
 replied Noll. 
 
 " You have always persisted in thinking me an un 
 usual sort of woman," said Phoebe ; " but you will 
 certainly have to learn, now that Noll and Eva are 
 come, that there are others who entertain similar views, 
 and who recognize usefulness as one of the greatest 
 blessings of life." 
 
 " I hope I shall," said Jack. " My opinion of women 
 lias so changed since I knew PhoBbe, that I have become 
 twice as much of a man as I should ever have been 
 without her. So I hail a further awakening, and shall 
 be glad to learn more of the same sort." 
 
 "What has my little girl learned in all these five 
 long years?" asked Mr. Martyn of Eva. 
 
 "Do you. want me to run through a list of all the 
 books I have studied ? " 
 
 " I want to hear what you have learned," he re 
 plied. 
 
 " We studied Noll and I the books that I sup 
 pose eveiy one does to get a general idea of well, 
 almost everything mathematics, and little synoptical 
 surveys of the sciences ; but we don t know any of 
 them very thoroughly." 
 
 " That s bad," said Mr. Martyn, looking grave. 
 16
 
 242 EVA EGBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 "We didn t think so. "We couldn t learn all of 
 everything. Nobody can do that. So we took just 
 enough of everything not to be absurdly ignorant of 
 every-day matters. Then we each worked hard and 
 thoroughly at our own forte." 
 
 " That s better. What is your forte ? " 
 
 " Language. * I studied its history and composition, 
 its derivation and construction ; then I attended espe 
 cially to Latin, French, and German, in connection with 
 English. I understand them very well, and can teach 
 or translate them satisfactorily, I think." 
 
 Mr. Martyn looked dissatisfied. "Which of the four 
 do you understand best?" he asked. 
 " English, of course." 
 
 " I am glad of that. What good will the rest do 
 you, child ? " he said. 
 
 Eva s face was shaded over at once. Her blue eyes 
 deepened with disappointment and grief. " They are 
 my tools to work with, uncle, if I should ever again 
 need to work as I did at Campfields," she said, ear 
 nestly. 
 
 Mr. Marty n smiled incredulously, but he only said, 
 " Perhaps so, perhaps so." He did not mean that she 
 should ever have to work like that again ; but he 
 thought if it was any comfort to her to think she 
 could be more efficient in such a time of need, he 
 would not object to the fancy.
 
 HOME IX THE WEST. 243 
 
 " "We cannot tell what may happen to any of us," 
 Jack said, seriously. 
 
 " Indeed," spoke up Noll, " what is the use of 
 spending valuable time and money in cultivating femi 
 nine brains, if they are presumed to be worthless ever 
 after ? I mean to tur-n mine to proper account." 
 
 " Hope you will ! " cried Jack. 
 
 " Is that all you have learned ? " resumed Mr. Martyn. 
 
 Eva was silent and perplexed. 
 
 " I ll tell you one thing more, father," said Jack. 
 " She has learned to be a little woman. She was 
 something of that when she first came to us; but she 
 has grown a good deal larger in her soul I mean 
 she is always a mite of a body; she is stronger and 
 braver. She thinks deeper and sees farther. Isn t it 
 so, Evvy?" 
 
 " I hope so. I suppose most people learn those 
 things as they grow up." 
 
 " Well, they don t," replied Jack. " And Noll, here, 
 has grown more steady and earnest. She is more 
 thoughtful and more gentle than when I left her, four 
 years ago." 
 
 " O, wait till I find my handkerchief, to hide my 
 blushes!" cried Noll. "I m not used to being 
 praised." 
 
 " Xoll has talents in all sorts of ways," said Eva, in 
 a tone of affectionate admiration. " She was good at
 
 244 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 books, but that did not prevent her from outshining both 
 Ri and Sophy in society. Aunt Matilda is very proud 
 of her, now that she has discovered her social talents. 
 How did you contrive to keep them hid so long, 
 Nolly dear?" 
 
 " I never kept anything hid in my life, except 
 Dionysius ear. I think the non-discovery of my 
 social talents was due solely to the obtuseness of my 
 friends." 
 
 " Mother wrote me you were a great success," said 
 Jack. 
 
 "Tell me what else you have learned," persisted Mr. 
 Martyn, holding one of Eva s hands caressingly in his 
 own. 
 
 "Something in the common-sense line, Evvy, is what 
 he wants," suggested Jack. 
 
 "O!" But still Eva was unable to rehearse the ad 
 ditions she had made to her real wisdom. Is is al 
 ways easier to recite off book-knowledge than to give 
 the results of our thought and experience. So Eva 
 sat puzzled and distressed, and could not answer. 
 
 "What do you think is the best way to live?" Mr. 
 Martyn asked. 
 
 But still Eva could frame no words to reply. The 
 color rushed over her face, which she hid in her hands, 
 as she realized her failure, and thought how he must 
 suppose all the time and money he had so kindly
 
 HOME IX THE WEST. 245 
 
 devoted to her education unwisely bestowed, since she 
 had not learned what he expected and wished she 
 should. This was more than Noll could sit calmly 
 by and see. 
 
 " It is too bad of you, Mr. Martyn ! " she cried, more 
 earnestly than respectfully. "Evvy knows just as 
 well as anybody, only she can t say it. Wait, and 
 you ll see, as time passes and occasions arise, she will 
 go right on, and live a noble, true life, though she may 
 not be quite up to the metaphysics of defining it." 
 
 Noll s well-meant but aggressive defence of her was 
 Eva s final and greatest distress. It was dreadful to 
 hear her speak out so to this dear, good uncle Martyn, 
 who had done so much for her! Would he think she 
 had not always spoken lovingly and respectfully of 
 him, that Noll dared address him so? She lifted 
 quickly her blushing face, and kissed the hands that 
 covered and held hers. "I think I have learned some 
 common sense about life, uncle," she said, "but I real 
 ly don t know how to tell it off at your bidding. I am 
 afraid you will have to wait, and find out what I have 
 learned by my every-day life here." 
 
 "You ve learned that it s not the end and aim of life 
 to come out in society, and catch a husband," said 
 Charley. " I know that by your letters." 
 
 "Indeed, I have," replied Eva, "and I cannot re 
 member any time when I supposed it was."
 
 246 EVA EOBEKTS EDUCATION". 
 
 "That s well," said Mr. Martyn. "I shall fine! out 
 your virtues and wisdom in time, little girl, and per 
 haps all the more pleasantly that you could not tell me 
 them." 
 
 "Speaking of husbands," said Jack, "has no one 
 captured that desirable Salsby yet ? " 
 
 The girls were silent. 
 
 "I believe not," answered Charley. "I saw and 
 spoke with him, and he is still untrammelled with 
 matrimony. I think he improves, however. Pie 
 seems to have grown more manly in spite of his 
 disadvantages in the shape of flattery and idleness." 
 
 "It s too bad!" said Jack, with comically feigned 
 regret. "It is mortifying, too, when all my sisters 
 wanted him so badly ! " 
 
 "Nonsense!" said Eva. 
 
 "They did," persisted Jack; "either one of them 
 would have cut off a heel or a toe, like Cinderella s 
 sisters, to marry Mortimer Salsby." 
 
 "But don t libel Cinderella, for she didn t mutilate 
 her feet for the prince," returned Eva, eager to protect 
 Noll s honor. 
 
 "No; because she could get him without, in the 
 story. I suppose Noll gave up in the outset, and 
 spared her toes." 
 
 "Noll didn t want him; so she had no need to 
 give up."
 
 HOME IN THE WEST. 247 
 
 Sour grapes ! " laughed Jack, incredulously. 
 
 "It wasn t sour grapes!" cried Eva, impetuously, 
 and then stopped short, fearing she was guilty of u 
 breach of confidence, and grieved at Noll s flushed and 
 averted face. 
 
 Jack looked up at her earnest disclaimer, and saw 
 her frightened glance at Noll. His eyes followed hers, 
 and read Noll s confused and displeased face. He rose 
 and walked to her side. Charley and Phffibe were 
 holding an independent conversation, in which Mr. 
 Martyn took part. Bending over her, he asked, in a 
 low tone, "Is that so, Noll? Wouldn t you marry 
 Mortimer Salsby?" 
 
 No, Jack." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " Because he leads an aimless, useless life. We 
 were very good friends all winter. He is delightful 
 for amusement and recreation; but he doesn t know 
 how to work, nor care for it. I mean to work, and be 
 good for something." 
 
 "Noll" and Jack lifted her face in his two hands 
 " Noll, I am proud of you ! I glory in you ! If other 
 women were like you, and Phoabe, and Eva, there 
 would be better men, too. God bless you, my grand 
 girl, and send you, one of these days, a better husband 
 than Mortimer Salsby." 
 
 Noll smiled gladly at the praise from him whose
 
 248 EVA EOBEKTS EDUCATION. 
 
 approbation she most valued, and then dropped her face 
 upon the window at the final wish, thinking, "Ah! no; 
 God will never do that ! " 
 
 " Uncle," said Eva, as she bade Mr. Martyn good 
 night, " I have been thinking of your question, What 
 have I learned? and I am sure that the best and 
 greatest part of my education was in my daily 1 hfe, at 
 aunt Matilda s, and not at school." Mr. Martyn s kind, 
 keen eyes were on her face, but she was not now con 
 fused by them. " Because there I saw and learned the 
 unsatisfactoriness of frivolous life. I shall never want 
 to come out as Ri and Sophy did. Noll contrived to 
 enjoy it, but it was because she did not give herself up 
 to it, heart and soul, as the other girls did. She had 
 something else better in her mind. So I have learned 
 that we can only enjoy our pleasures when we have 
 our earnest work forever underlying and behind 
 them." 
 
 "That will do, my little girl. You have learned a 
 great lesson. And now I will tell you that I wanted 
 you to go to your aunt Matilda s for the very reason 
 that I thought the experience would do you good. 
 You were brought up so shielded in the arms of your 
 mother and Charley, that you had had no occasion to 
 think or act for yourself. In your aunt s family I 
 found two equal and opposite tendencies one to-
 
 HOME IN THE WEST. 249 
 
 ward an earnest and useful life, in Mr. Meredith, 
 Jack, and Noll; the other, toward fashion and idle 
 ness. I was sure you had enough of your dear, good 
 mother in your character to make you gravitate to tlte 
 right side ; but I wanted, for your own strengthening 
 and benefit, that you should be placed there alone, 
 no Charley to aid you, that you might learn to de 
 cide and follow your own course, and thereby gain 
 self-reliance and confidence. I think my little experi 
 ment has succeeded well." 
 
 " Thank you, uncle ; I feared I had disappointed 
 you." 
 
 "No, indeed! Never think that again. You are 
 come home now to be my own little girl. Since Jack 
 has carried off my Phoebe, and I find you sent him 
 here, I must have you to make good her place in 
 my house. It has been empty enough with only Mrs. 
 Dole for enlivenment. Will you come, and be my 
 little daughter?" 
 
 "Yes, uncle, I will, gladly." 
 
 Eva and Noll found a new and strange life in their 
 western home ; but in it was ample room and opportu 
 nity to be "good for something." Their liberal educa 
 tion, the habits of industry and systematic labor they 
 had formed, and their knowledge of people and ways, 
 were all useful in the life that opened before them.
 
 250 EVA ROBERTS EDUCATION. 
 
 They entered heartily and gladly upon the various 
 work that came to their hands, and, happy in their 
 continued companionship and love, passed some of the 
 pleasantest years of their lives in their busy home in 
 the west.
 
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 Earnest Thornton, the " smart boy " of this story, is a clear headed, well 
 intentioned, plucky boy, that has a high aim and means right even where he 
 is wrong, and his adventures will be read with interest. 
 
 FREAKS OF FORTUNE ; or, Half around the 
 World, a sequel to "The Starry Flag." $1.25. 
 "The adventures of Levi Fairfield, the noble young Captain of the Starry 
 Flag, excited such an interest among the young folks that the continuance of 
 his story was called for, with which demand the ever ready author has 
 complied, with a story equally attractive and interesting." 
 
 MAKE OR BREAK ; or, the Rich Man s Daughter. 
 
 $1.25. 
 
 " This is a lively, stirring volume, full of interest and instruction from one 
 cover to the other. Just the book a smart, wide-awake boy will enjoy in 
 tensely." Press. 
 
 DOWN THE RIVER ; or, Buck Bradford and his 
 
 Tyrants. $1.25. 
 
 " These stories are not only written in a manner well calculated to enchain 
 the attention of youns; readers, but teach at the same time such important 
 lessons of sobriety, industry and cheerfulness, that we should like to BCO 
 them in the hands of every boy in the land." Galesburg Free Press. 
 
 Sold by all booksellers and newsdealers, and sent by mail, post-paid, on 
 receipt of price. 
 
 LEE & SHEPARO, Publishers, Boston.
 
 LEE & SHEPARD S JUVENILE PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 SOPHIE MAY S BOOKS. 
 
 LITTLE PRUDY STORIES, 
 
 Six volumes. Illustrated. In Sets or separate. Per 
 
 " volume, 75 cents. 
 LITTLE PRUDY. 
 
 LITTLE PRUDY S Sister Susy. 
 
 LITTLE PRUDY S Captain Horace. 
 
 LITTLE PRUDY S Cousin Grace. 
 
 LITTLE PRUDY S Story Book. 
 
 LITTLE PRUDY S Dotty Dimple. 
 
 DOTTY DIMPLE STORIES, 
 
 By the author of " Little Prudy Stories." 
 
 Six volumes. Illustrated. In Sets or separate. Per 
 volume, 75 cents. 
 
 DOTTY DIMPLE at her Grandmother s. 
 DOTTY DIMPLE at Home. 
 
 DOTTY DIMPLE out West. 
 
 DOTTY DIMPLE at Play. 
 
 DOTTY DIMPLE at School. 
 
 DOTTY DIMPLE S Flyaway. 
 
 Read the high commendation of the S orth American Review, which 
 places Sophie May s Books at the 
 
 Head of Juvenile Literature. 
 
 "Genius comes in with Little Prudy. Compared with her, all other 
 hook-children are cold creations of Literature only; she alone is the real 
 thing. All the quaintness of childhood, its originality, its tenderness and its 
 teasing, its infinite, unconscious drollery, the serious earnestness of its 
 fun, the fun of its seriousness, the natural religion of its plays, and the delic 
 ious oddity of its prayers, all those waited for dear Little Prudy to embody 
 them. Bam "VYeller is not more piquant; Hans Anderson s nutcrackers and 
 knitting-needles are not more thoroughly chanred with life. There are six 
 little green volumes in the series, and of course other dramatis persotue 
 must figure ; but one eagerly watches for every reappearance of Prudy, as 
 one watches at the play for Owens or Warren to re-enter upon the stuuc. 
 Who is our benefactress in the authorship of these books, the world knows 
 not. Sophie May must doubtless be a fancy name, by reason of the spelling, 
 and we have only to be greutful that the author did not inflict on us the 
 customary alliteration in her pseudonyme. The rare gift of delineating 
 childhood is hers, and may the line of Little Prudy go out to the end of the 
 earth To those oversaturated with transatlantic traditions we recom 
 mend a course of Little Prudy," 
 
 Sold by all booksellers and newsdealers, and sent by mail, post-paid, on 
 receipt of price. 
 
 LEE & SHEPARD, Publishers, Boston.
 
 lllllllllli Hill Hill Hill llllnli|i 7 Oft 7