BY 
 
 LUCY C. LILLIE 
 
 AUTHOR OF "MILDRED'S BARGAIN AND OTHER STORIES" 
 
 3Utt0trateir 
 
 NEW YORK 
 HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE
 
 HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE SERIES. 
 
 Illustrated. Square IGmo, Cloth, $1 00 per volume. 
 
 CAPTAIN POLLY.' By SOPHIE SWETT. 
 
 UNCLE PETER'S TRUST ; or, Following the Drums. By GEORGE B. PERRY. 
 
 DORYMATES. A Tale of the Fishing Banks. By KIRK MUNROB. 
 
 CHRYSTAL, JACK, & CO., AND DELTA BIXBY. Two Stories. By KIRK MUNROK. 
 
 DERRICK STERLING. By KIRK MUNROE. 
 
 THE FLAMINGO FEATHER. By KIRK MUNBOB. 
 
 WAKULLA : A Story of Adventure in Florida. By KIRK MUNROE. 
 
 STRANGE STORIES FROM HISTORY. By GEORGE CABY EGGLKSTON. 
 
 THE ICE QUEEN. By ERNEST INGERSOLL. 
 
 PRINCE LAZYBONES, AND OTHER STORIES. By Mrs. W. J. HAYS. 
 
 WHO WAS PAUL GRAYSON ? By JOHN HABBERTON, Author of " Helen's Babies." 
 
 TWO ARROWS. A Story of Red and White, liy W. O. STODDABD. 
 
 THE TALKING LEAVES. An Indian Story. By W. O. STODDARD. 
 
 INTO UNKNOWN SEAS; or, The Cruise of Two Sailor-Boys. By DAVID KEH. 
 
 THE LOST CITY ; or, The Boy Explorers in Central Asia. By DAVID KEB. 
 
 THE FOUR MACNICOLS. By WILLIAM BLACK. 
 
 THE HOUSEHOLD OF GLEN HOLLY. By LUCY C. LILLIE. 
 
 JO'S OPPORTUNITY. By LUCY C. LILLIE. 
 
 ROLF HOUSE. By LUCY C. LILLIK. 
 
 MUSIC AND MUSICIANS. By LUCY C. LILLIE. 
 
 NAN. By LUCY C. LILLIE. 
 
 MILDRED'S BARGAIN, AND OTHER STORIES. Hy LUCY C. LlLLIB. 
 
 THE COLONEL'S MONEY. By LUCY C. I.ILI.IK. 
 
 SILENT PETE ; or, The Stowaways. By JAMES OTIS. 
 
 RAISING THE "PEARL." By JAMES OTIS. 
 
 LEFT BEHIND ; or. Ten Days a Newsboy. By JAMES OTIS. 
 
 TIM AND TIP; or, The Adventures of a Boy and a Dog. By JAHKS OTIS. 
 
 MR. STUBBS'S BROTHER. A Sequel to "Toby Tyler." By JAMES OTIS. 
 
 TOBY TYLER; or. Ten Weeks with a Circus. By JAMES OTIS. 
 
 A NEW ROBINSON CRUSOE. By W. L. ALDEN. 
 
 THE MORAL PIRATES. By W. L. ALDEX. 
 
 THE CUUISE OF THE " GHOST." By W. L. ALDEN. 
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE CANOE CLUB. By W. L. ALDEN. 
 
 THE ADVENTURES OF JIMMY BROWN. Edited by W. L. ALDEN. 
 
 EB BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK. 
 
 Any of the about trorit mil be tent by mail, pottage prepaid, to any part of the 
 United States, Canada, or Mexico, on receipt of the price. 
 
 Copyright, 1883, by HARPER & BROTHERS.
 
 STACK 
 ANNEX 
 
 TO 
 TT.AJSPS FIRST 
 
 MY DEAR GOD-DAUGHTER 
 
 JENNY FAULINE
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 "IP YOU TELL OP ME YOU WILL KILL ME" Frontispiece. 
 
 "i AM YOUR SECOND COUSIN " To face p. 16 
 
 "NAN WAS DRESSED BY MRS. RUPERT AND MARIAN" " 20 
 
 NAN PRESENTED TO MISS PHYLLIS FOR APPROVAL " 28 
 
 "'WHATEVER HAPPENS, i NEVER, NEVER COULD FORGET 
 
 YOU'" " 46 
 
 PHYLLIS TELLS MISS ROLF ABOUT THE JOURNEY " 54 
 
 "BERTIE, MUCH THE WORSE FOR NUTS, APPEARED" " 68 
 
 "AN ANIMATED THOUGH WHISPERED CONVERSATION WENT 
 
 ON" " 78 
 
 "MISS ROLF JUST LET HER CRY" " 86 
 
 THE "THEATRE" " 90 
 
 "LANCE, FOLLOWED BY NAN, CARRIED THE CHILD" " 106 
 
 THE DOCTOR AND LANCE FIND MRS. TRAVER8 " 116 
 
 NAN MAKING HER PURCHASES " 128 
 
 "HOW WELL IT LOOKS WITH MISS LAURA'S HAIR!" " 132 
 
 LAURA TRYING THE NEW ORNAMENTS ON HER HELMET " 146 
 
 "HER AUNT HELD UP THE LITTLE TINSEL ORNAMENT".... " 164 
 "THIS is OUR COMPACT OF ETERNAL FRIENDSHIP NAN'S 
 
 AND MINE" " 178 
 
 NAN FAINTS IN MRS. HERIOT'S ARMS " 184 
 
 "NAN CLASPED THE NECKLACE ABOUT HER SLENDER WHITE 
 
 THROAT" " 200
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 " IF a man had eight quarts of wine in one measure and 
 three in another " 
 
 Nan announced so much of a problem in her arithmetic, 
 and then stopped with a little groan of despair. 
 
 " Well ?" said her cousin Marian, turning around from 
 the window. 
 
 " Oh, dear /" sighed Nan, " what's the use of lessons any 
 way ? and if we don't go down town soon, we won't be 
 home for tea." j 
 
 " What if we're not ?" said the third inmate of the room, 
 a boy of about thirteen, who was lounging on the sofa. 
 " But hurry up, Nan ; there's no use grumbling." Nan 
 planted her elbows more firmly into the table, clutched 
 each side of her curly head with a pair of firm brown hands, 
 and returned to the question of the man and his wine.
 
 io Nan. 
 
 Marian watched the thin, drizzling rain on the garden-beds, 
 and Philip read his Kobinson Crusoe, regardless of the dis- 
 order of shells and minerals about him. For the matter of 
 that, no one of the three young people took special heed of 
 his or her surroundings. Marian did not care ; Philip had 
 a boy's feeling that he could not help untidiness, and Nan 
 had, after two years' residence there, grown accustomed to 
 the dingy shabbiness and vulgar disorder of her step-aunt's 
 house in Bromfield. 
 
 The room was a nondescript one, above a cheese and but- 
 ter store. It was half sitting-room, half parlor, and, as long 
 as Nan had known it, the furniture had been the same, ex- 
 cept that the wear and tear of time had made the chairs 
 and table more rickety, the holes in the carpet more danger- 
 ous to incautious walkers, and the drawers of the big side- 
 board or press more uncertain in their way of moving in 
 and out. The room overlooked the main street of Brom- 
 field, and, as I have said, was directly above the store kept 
 by Nan's step-aunt, Mrs. Rupert. A rather dark corridor 
 outside led to a rickety staircase. Below was only a small 
 room off the store, and a kitchen, while above the family 
 were crowded into three sleeping-rooms. 
 
 When Nan first came to live with the Ruperts, she was 
 painfully observant of the things about her; but time had 
 made many of the disagreeables seem natural, although
 
 Nan. 1 1 
 
 even now any one could read in the bright, sweet face of 
 my little heroine something more delicate and refined than 
 her surroundings. 
 
 Just what Nan Rolf looked like at thirteen it is hard to 
 tell you. Sitting at the table on this gray rainy day, she 
 seemed to be the only bright spot in the room. Marian 
 was a head taller than Nan. She was a pretty, rosy girl, in 
 spite of her cramped life, and certainly would develop into a 
 handsome woman. But no one could have predicted any- 
 thing so definitely of little Nan. Her face was interesting, 
 but not pretty ; the features were irregular, the hazel eyes 
 were full of a certain earnest sweetness, and though her 
 mouth was rather wide, her smile was bright and dimpling, 
 and her teeth white and even. Perhaps if Nan's hair had 
 been in order, her clothes tidy and well-fitting, if she should 
 cross a room without awkwardness, she might have looked 
 attractive to any one. As it was, only those who cared to 
 look a second time caught the real spirit of the child's face, 
 the fearless honesty in her glance, the sweetness that made 
 up for much lack of repose in her face and manner. 
 
 Nan herself would have laughed gayly at the thought of 
 any one counting up her attractions, or indeed of their 
 bestowing five minutes' reflection upon her. Such as she 
 was, she had grown up more like a little wild-flower, sharing 
 what others around her had to offer, coming in for scold-
 
 1 2 Nan. 
 
 ings and pettings, the former predominating, no doubt, 
 but never thinking much of her own individuality. Her 
 step-aunt, Mrs. Rupert, was a widow with four children, the 
 eldest of whom was Marian ; and, young as she was, Nan ap- 
 preciated the kindness that offered her a home when her 
 parents died ; for Nan had never seen her indeed, had 
 scarcely heard of her, for the tie was not one of blood. 
 Mrs. Rupert's mother had married, a second time, Nan's 
 grandfather, himself a widower with one little girl, later 
 Nan's mother. The half-sisters had rarely met, for, before 
 Mrs. Rolf was out of school, her step-sister had made a mar- 
 riage far beneath her, and removed to Bromfield. Mrs. 
 Rolf married, a few years later, a young lawyer, reputed to 
 be very well off in this world's goods ; but she knew at the 
 time that he had quarrelled with his grandfather, from 
 whom he had expected a fortune and so it chanced that 
 little Nan came into the world, and had lived her thirteen 
 years in it, knowing no real relations. When her mother's 
 death left her a penniless orphan, Mrs. Rupert came for- 
 ward and took the child to her own home. Mrs. Rupert 
 had made an ineffectual effort, it is true, to reach some of 
 Nan's paternal relations ; and even now the child was fre- 
 quently puzzled by hearing her aunt speak to others of her 
 " having those belonging to her as rolled in money." Who 
 or where they were, Nan often wondered in a vague, childish
 
 Nan. 1 3 
 
 way, but could not tell. Her mother had died too suddenly 
 to leave her any directions, and her father Nan only re- 
 membered dimly. Keen as were her instincts of refinement, 
 and isolated as she often felt, yet little Nan could look for- 
 ward to no future which should be brighter than Marian's. 
 Philip was a boy : he, Nan liked to think, could go out into 
 the world and carve his own career ; but for her, she felt sure 
 it could only be the butter shop ; the crowded little rooms ; 
 and the children always needing to be cared for in some 
 fashion, from morning until night.
 
 14 Nan. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 " THERE !" exclaimed Nan, jumping up ; " that old thing's 
 done at last. Come on, Marian ! come, Philip !" 
 
 " Don't knock everything over," growled Philip, slowly 
 getting on his feet, while Marian put on her hat and jacket 
 before a cracked mirror hung between the windows. Nan 
 never required to see herself when she dressed. She was 
 only a minute getting into an old woollen coat, and fasten- 
 ing a felt hat down over her wavy locks, after which she 
 began a vain search for her gloves. 
 
 " There's mother calling," exclaimed Marian. " It's for 
 you, Nan." 
 
 Nan heard the voice sounding down the hall, and darted 
 out, while Philip uttered another exclamation of disgust. 
 
 Nan never could overcome her dislike to the shop. She 
 could hardly have told you why it was, but the butter and 
 cheese and eggs in which Mr. Rupert dealt were unpleasant 
 to her, and, as she ran down the dark hall, it was with a little 
 shiver of dislike and of dread lest her aunt wanted her to 
 " mind " the shop during her absence. Marian rather liked
 
 Nan. 1 5 
 
 to perform this office, but Nan could never see any " fun " 
 in it, and was always ready enough to change places with 
 her cousin, on holidays, when they were all day at home. 
 Before Nan reached the shop -door, she heard voices in 
 pleasant though shrill tones, and, going in, was a little 
 startled by seeing a fashionably dressed young lady in ear- 
 nest conversation with her aunt. 
 
 It was a scene Nan never forgot; the twilight of the 
 cold spring day was just falling, and her aunt's stout fig- 
 ure, bending above a cheese, was in strong contrast to that of 
 her visitor, a tall, slender young lady in a rich dress of dark 
 silk, with beautiful furs and long-wristed gray gloves. She 
 had a handsome, delicate face, a little disdainful in expres- 
 sion, but very refined, and, as Nan entered, she turned lovely 
 blue eyes towards her. 
 
 Nan half drew back, with her hand still on the door. 
 
 " Come in, child !" said her aunt, in her most excited 
 tones. " Don't hang back that way. Here's a lady wants 
 particular to see you." 
 
 " To see me /" Nan gasped ; she had never in her life 
 had a special visitor before but the stranger made things 
 easy at once for her. She went up to little Nan, holding 
 out one of her beautifully gloved hands. 
 
 " How do you do, my dear?" she said in a soft, sweet 
 voice. " I am your second cousin Phyllis."
 
 1 6 Nan. 
 
 "You I " she began, and felt as if the little shop,' 
 cheeses and all, was dancing about her. Could this beautiful 
 lady be one of those who were " rolling in money ?" 
 
 " Yes, dear," said the lady again, " I have come especially 
 to see you." She turned to Mrs. Kupert, who was still 
 standing with a knife plunged into the cheese, and staring as 
 hard as Nan could at the visitor. " Perhaps I had better 
 call again in the morning there is so much to say ; and it 
 is late now." 
 
 " Oh 'm !" began Mrs. Rupert. " I'm sure we'd be glad 
 enough to see you any time perhaps it might be well to- 
 morrow. Where was it you said you was staying ?" 
 
 " At Mrs. Grange's," the lady answered, looking again at 
 little bewildered Nan. "My name is Miss Rolf, and I live 
 at Beverley." The name made Mrs. Rupert's heart jump. 
 Beverley was the town in which Nan's grandfather had 
 lived and died. Surely this meant something ; just what, 
 Mrs. Rupert hardly knew. 
 
 " Well, Nan Rolf !" she said, as soon as the lady had de- 
 parted. "There's fortune in the wind for you' just you 
 wait and see." 
 
 " Oh, aunt Lydia !" exclaimed Nan. " I wonder what it 
 can be?" But Mrs. Rupert could say no more; she could 
 only look wise and shake her head, while Nan darted away 
 to give Marian and Philip her wonderful piece of news.
 
 "I AM YOUR SECOND COUSIN.
 
 Nan. 1 7 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 NAN'S visitor, Miss Rolf, left the little shop and walked 
 away in the winter's dusk, up the main street and down one 
 of the more secluded streets, where the " upper ten " of 
 Bromfield lived. Bromfield was a large, dull town, full of 
 factories and smoke, and a general air of business and money- 
 making. The houses on the pretty street to which Miss 
 Rolf directed her steps seemed to be shut away from all the 
 dust and noise of the town, and Mrs. Grange's gateway 
 was the finest and most exclusive-looking one in the row. 
 Miss Rolf went in the gate, past a pretty lawn dotted with 
 cedars, to the side entrance of a long, low, stone house, with- 
 in the windows of which lights were already twinkling. 
 She had a curious, amused smile on her face as she went 
 down the hall, and it had not faded when she entered the 
 parlor fronting the garden and the lawn. 
 
 Three people were seated in the firelight an elderly 
 lady with a pale, sweet face, a tall boy of fifteen, and a gen- 
 tleman whose face was like Miss Rolf's in regularity of 
 feature, but much softer in expression.
 
 1 8 Nan. 
 
 In the luxurious room Miss Rolf looked much more in 
 her place than in Mr. Rupert's butter -shop, and if Nan 
 could have seen her " second cousin Phyllis " there, she 
 would have been more than ever certain that she belonged 
 to those who had the money. 
 
 Miss Rolf was greeted by all three occupants of the room 
 at once. 
 
 " Well, Phyllis ?" from the gentleman. 
 
 " Did you see her ?" this from the boy. 
 
 " Well, what happened ?" this from the lady. 
 
 Miss Rolf sank into one of the many easy-chairs, and, 
 leaning back, began to draw off her long gloves. 
 
 "Yes! I saw her," she answered, smiling. " It was really 
 very interesting. Quite like something in a story. There 
 was the horrible little store, and Mrs. Rupert, a vulgar sort 
 of woman ; and then the little girl came in dreadfully 
 untidy and dowdy-looking, but really not at all so common 
 as I feared; she has the hazel eyes every one admired so 
 in her father." 
 
 " And did you tell her her aunt Letitia wants her to go 
 to Beverley ?" said the boy eagerly. 
 
 " No, I didn't," rejoined Miss Rolf. " I thought I'd do 
 that when I went to-morrow, and I wanted to see the child 
 alone first." 
 
 " Why not send for her to come here ?" Mrs. Grange said 
 gently.
 
 Nan. 1 9 
 
 " Not a bad idea," said Miss Kolf, sitting upright. " She 
 might come to-morrow, instead of my going there." 
 
 " I can't help thinking Letitia will regret it," said the 
 gentleman, who was Miss Rolf's father. 
 
 " Why should she, papa ?" said the boy quickly. " Surely, 
 it is only fair; her father was left out of Cousin Harris's 
 will, just for a mere caprice, and why should Cousin Letty 
 have everything and this child nothing? I don't see the 
 justice of that." 
 
 " But to remove her from a low condition ; to place her 
 among people she never knew I am afraid it is unwise," 
 said Mr. Rolf, shaking his head. " You don't understand it, 
 Lance ; I don't expect you to. Just wait and see my words 
 come true." 
 
 Lance, or Lancelot Rolf, laughed brightly. He seemed 
 quite prepared to take the risks on Miss Letitia Rolf's vent- 
 ure. While Miss Rolf wrote her letter to little Nan, the 
 boy watched her earnestly. He was intensely interested in 
 this new-found cousin, and, had he known where to go, 
 would certainly have paid a visit to the cheesemonger's 
 family himself. 
 
 He would have found an excited little party had he done 
 so, for by eight o'clock Mrs. Rupert had indulged in every 
 possible speculation about Nan's future. Mr. Rupert, a 
 tall, thin, weatherbeaten man, had come in for tea, and was
 
 2o Nan* 
 
 told of the visitor, and obliged to hear all Mrs. Kupert's 
 ideas and hopes on the subject, while Nan herself was the 
 only quiet member of the party. She sat at the tea-table, 
 for once in her life very quiet and repressed. Just what 
 she hoped or thought, she could not have told you : but sud- 
 denly it seemed to her as if something like her old life with 
 her parents might be coming back ! Could it be she was to 
 go away, and leave Bromfield, the cheeses and butter and 
 eggs, her aunt's loud voice, Marian's little airs of superiority, 
 and Phil's rough kindness, forever behind her ? 
 
 " Come, Nan, you may as well help with the tea-things, if 
 you are going to see your rich relations," said her aunt's 
 voice sharply, recalling her to her duties, and Marian 
 laughed scornfully. 
 
 "I don't suppose we'll know Nan, or she us, by to- 
 morrow night," she said, with a shrug of the shoulders. 
 
 Early the next morning a man-servant from Mrs. Grange's 
 brought a note for Nan, which she read in the little, untidy 
 parlor, surrounded by all the family. It was from Miss 
 Eolf, requesting Nan to come as soon as possible to Mrs. 
 Grange's house, and it produced a new flutter in the house- 
 hold. Nan was dressed by Mrs. Eupert and Marian, in 
 everything that either of the girls' scanty wardrobes pos- 
 sessed worth putting on for such a visit; and, had she but 
 known it, a much simpler toilet would have been far more
 
 WAS DRESSED BY MRS. RUPERT AND MARIAN.
 
 Nan. 2 1 
 
 appropriate and becoming, for her purple merino dress and 
 Marian's red silk necktie, her "best" hat with its green 
 feathers, and Mrs. Rupert's soiled lavender kid gloves, were 
 a very dreadful combination ; and Nan, as she walked up 
 Main street, did not feel entirely satisfied with the cos- 
 tume herself. If her head had not been so dazed by what 
 the Ruperts already called her "good-fortune," she would 
 have felt it all more keenly ; as it was, she went into Mrs. 
 Grange's gate-way feeling herself in a dream, and won- 
 dering how and where she would wake up.
 
 22 
 
 Nan. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 was admitted by a very grave-looking man-servant, 
 who on hearing her name led her down the softly carpeted 
 hall, and Tip-stairs to the door of a cosy little sitting-room 
 where Miss Kolf was waiting for her. The many luxuries 
 of the room-, its brightness and air of refinement, made Nan 
 half-afraid to go farther, and suddenly she seemed to feel 
 the vulgarity of her own dress ; but her " second cousin," 
 Miss Rolf, smiled very pleasantly upon her from the 
 window, and, coming up to the little girl, kissed her affec- 
 tionately. 
 
 Miss Rolf in the morning light, and in a long dress of 
 pale gray wool, looked to Nan like nothing less than a 
 princess. She was apparently about twenty one or two, 
 with a fair face, soft waves of blonde hair, and eyes that 
 looked to Nan like stars they were so bright and yet soft 
 with all their sparkle. Nan scarcely noticed the imperious 
 curve of her new cousin's pretty mouth, or the disdainful 
 pose of the head. She thought of nothing then but her 
 beauty and grace and charming manners.
 
 Nan. 23 
 
 " Well, ray dear," this dazzling princess said, " take off 
 your hat and cloak and sit down by the fire. I want to 
 have a talk with you." Nan, very much subdued by every- 
 thing she saw about her, obeyed, while Miss Rolf seated her- 
 self in a low chair and looked at her little cousin critically. 
 
 "Now, Nan," she said, gravely, "do you know that 
 your father would have been a very rich man but for an 
 absurd quarrel with his elder brother?" 
 
 " I knew there was something," said Nan, who was afraid 
 of her own voice. 
 
 " Well, then," continued Miss Rolf , " when your grand- 
 father died, he left everything to his elder son and daughter. 
 The son, your uncle Harris, is a confirmed invalid indeed, 
 he is not altogether right in his mind but your aunt Le- 
 titia, your father's older sister, is strong and well, and they 
 live together at Beverley. Miss Letitia has suddenly taken 
 it into her head to hunt you up, and, as my father and I 
 were coming here on a visit, she asked me to try and find 
 you." 
 
 Miss Rolf paused, and Nan, who sat very still, her hazel 
 eyes fixed on the young lady's face, nodded, and said in a 
 sort of whisper, " Thank you." 
 
 "Your aunt," continued Phyllis, smiling pleasantly, 
 " told me that I was to invite you, in her name, to come on 
 a visit to Beverley. Mind, Nan, don't get it into your head
 
 24 Nan. 
 
 that it is more than a visit unless you prove so nice and 
 pleasant a little visitor that she will want you to stay 
 always." 
 
 Nan's face broke into a smile that made her really pretty. 
 
 " I'll try and be pleasant," she said, brightly. 
 
 "So you would like to go?" said Miss Phyllis, looking 
 at her earnestly. " Wouldn't you miss the Ruperts ?" 
 
 Nan's face flushed. 
 
 " Yes," she said, looking down, " I shall rniss aunt and 
 Philip." 
 
 Miss Phyllis said nothing for a moment. She had more 
 to tell, but she thought it as well not to say it now. She 
 had taken a sudden fancy to Nan ; she wanted the child to 
 come to Beverley, and perhaps, if she told her all, Nan 
 would refuse : at least, looking at the child's honest, fear- 
 less eyes, she felt it more prudent to say no more. So Nan 
 was told that she was to go, if she liked, in a week to her 
 grandfather's and her father's old home. 
 
 " Your aunt thought," said Miss Phyllis, " that you 
 might need some new clothes. You see you will have to 
 dress more at her house than here in Bromfield, and so we 
 will take a week to get you ready. Perhaps it would be as 
 well for you to stay here to-day, and go out with me." 
 
 Nan's eyes danced ! Never but once since she lived in 
 Bromfield had she owned an entirely new dress. Every-
 
 Nan. 25 
 
 thing she wore had been " made over" from Mrs. Rupert's 
 or Marian's, and she faintly understood that new clothes of 
 Miss Phyllis's buying would be something unthought-of in 
 the Rupert mind. 
 
 " I'll leave you here a little while, Nan," said the young 
 lady, " and you can amuse yourself with the books and 
 papers." 
 
 But Nan needed nothing of the kind. When the door 
 was closed, she uttered a little half-scream of delight, and 
 jumped up, walking over to the window, where she looked 
 out at the dull town lying smoky and hazy in the dis- 
 tance, and which she felt sure she was leaving forever! 
 She hardly heard Miss Phyllis returning, and felt startled 
 by the sound of her voice saying, " Nan, are you ready ?" 
 And there was the beautiful young lady in her furs and 
 broad-brimmed hat, with a purse and a little note-book in 
 her hand, ready to lead Nan into the first scene of her en- 
 chantment.
 
 26 Nan. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 NAN thought that the delight of this day never could be 
 equalled by anything life would bring, even at Beverley. 
 To begin with, she and Miss Phyllis started out in a most 
 luxurious carriage, which rolled them through the town, 
 past the butter-shop, where Mrs. Rupert was standing in the 
 door-way, and finally deposited them at Mr. Lennon's large 
 store, into which Nan had never gone half so proudly 
 before. 
 
 " You needn't appear to recognize any one, Nan," Miss 
 Phyllis said, just as they went in ; and this dashed Nan's 
 spirits just a little, for Mary Seymour, one of the girls in 
 the millinery room, was a particular friend of her aunt's ; 
 but then Miss Phyllis must know best, thought Nan, and 
 she would trust to luck keeping Mary out of their way. 
 
 Everybody was most obsequious to Miss Rolf ; and when 
 she said quietly, " I want to see your handsomest dresses, 
 ready made, for this little girl," Nan could hardly move to 
 follow them up-stairs ; and there, out of a long case, dress 
 after dress was taken, held up, tried on, examined, and criti-
 
 Nan. 27 
 
 cised by Miss Phyllis, who sat languidly with her purse and 
 her note-book, evidently quite regardless of expense of 
 prices that took Nan's breath away. It was well her 
 opinion was not asked, for she would never have dared to 
 choose what Miss Phyllis did for her, a soft seal-brown wool 
 costume, handsomely trimmed with silk, and with a jacket 
 to match. Miss Phyllis quietly desired Nan to put these 
 garments on ; and when the saleswoman brought her back 
 from the dressing-room, her cousin could not repress a smile 
 of satisfaction ; and really, little Nan did credit to the quiet, 
 ladylike costume. Miss Phyllis saw a great many possibili- 
 ties in the child's bright face and pretty, slender figure. 
 
 The hat question came next and here Nan's joy was 
 somewhat dampened by her fear that Mary Seymour would 
 appear and claim acquaintance, and thereby annoy Miss 
 Phyllis ; and sure enough, while she was trying on a beau- 
 tiful brown felt hat, with a scarlet wing in it, Mary Sey- 
 mour's voice was heard cheerily, from across the room. 
 
 "Why, Nan Eolf !" she was saying, " is that you ?" 
 
 And then Nan saw that her princess could look very 
 differently on different occasions. She turned a cold little 
 stare upon poor Mary, and then said, in a tone perfectly au- 
 dible to the shop-girl : 
 
 " "Who is that, Annice ?" Now it was the first time Nan 
 had been called by her full name since her father died, and
 
 28 Nan. 
 
 between the start it gave her, and her little worry about 
 Mary Seymour, she hardly knew what to say, and stood 
 looking guiltily at her aunt's friend, with a rush of color 
 in her face. 
 
 " It is Mary Seymour," she said in a low voice. 
 
 Miss Phyllis waited a moment, the cold look still on her 
 face ; then she took Nan by the hand, and went across the 
 room to where Mary was busy putting bonnet-frames into 
 a drawer. 
 
 "My little cousin is going away from Bromfield," she 
 said, smiling, but speaking in the very chilliest tone. " Per- 
 haps you had better say good-bye to her now. She is going 
 to live with her aunt at Beverley." 
 
 Poor Mary stared at the beautiful young lady, and said 
 nothing for a moment ; then she stooped down and kissed 
 Nan's little red cheek heartily. 
 
 " Well, good-luck go with you, Nannie dear," she said ; 
 and, half understanding the impression Miss Kolf wished to 
 make, she added, looking up with a sad smile : " I suppose 
 it won't do to expect you to remember us any more, but 
 Tommy'll miss you dreadfully." 
 
 " I'll write him a letter, Mary !" Nan exclaimed, and see- 
 ing Miss Rolf's look of surprise turn to something like dis- 
 gust, she added, " Tommy is Mary's lame little brother." 
 
 Miss Phyllis said nothing, but led the way back to the
 
 NAN PRESENTED TO MISS PHYLLIS FOR APPROVAL.
 
 Nan. 
 
 29 
 
 hats, and Nan, unable to restrain herself further, whispered : 
 " Miss Rolf Cousin Phyllis, why did you say I was going 
 to live at Beverley, when it is only a visit ?" 
 
 Miss Phyllis bit her lip angrily. " Never mind," was all 
 she answered ; and then the brown felt hat was chosen, and 
 the purchases went on gloves, and boots, and some dainty 
 under-linen, and various small belongings, until finally all 
 that remained on Miss Phyllis's list was a dressing-case and 
 a trunk. Nan hardly knew which of the beautiful cases to 
 choose, when her cousin left it to her ; but finally a black 
 leather one with silver fastenings was selected, and Miss 
 Phyllis directed the shopman to have Nan's initials, A. B. R., 
 pat on it in little silver letters. 
 
 By this time Nan, in her new brown suit, with her hands 
 in three-button kid gloves, had begun to think she never, 
 never could do justice to the day to Philip and Marian, and 
 yet a something had stolen over her of half -repugnance to 
 going back to the shop. Already she dreaded her aunt's 
 voice, the noisy, greasy tea-table, where only Philip made 
 things endurable for her ; so that when, as they left the last 
 store, loading the carriage with parcels, and Miss Phyllis 
 said, " I'm going to keep you for the night, Nan," my little 
 heroine felt more than ever grateful and happy.
 
 30 Nan. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 MRS. GRANGE received Nan very cordially when she 
 made her appearance with Miss Rolf. The gentle little 
 lady was quite a revelation to Nan, whose ideas of elderly 
 people were formed entirely on the noisy, over -worked 
 matrons she had seen at Mrs. Rupert's. Nan was only al- 
 lowed a few words with her hostess, and then Miss Rolf 
 carried her off to the little sitting-room up-stairs, where, 
 when she had laid aside her hat and jacket, Miss Rolf told 
 her she had better write Mrs. Rupert a note to explain her 
 absence. 
 
 " And I want you to word it very carefully, Nan," said 
 Phyllis, coming up to the little girl with a very serious ex- 
 pression. " You know things are changed with you now, 
 and you must begin at once to let your aunt and her family 
 understand that you are not they cannot expect you, to 
 treat them quite as equals." 
 
 Nan was still full of the excitement and exhilaration of 
 her good-fortune; yet as Phyllis spoke, looking down gravely 
 upon her, there came a blush of mortification into the child's
 
 Nan. 31 
 
 honest face. A tinge of the same color deepened in Phyl- 
 lis's soft cheeks for just half a moment, but she said very 
 decidedly : 
 
 " Now, Nan, you are not going to be a foolish, obstinate 
 child, I hope ; surely you must know that I and your aunt 
 Letitia understand these things better than a little girl 
 brought up among vulgar people could. Now, there must 
 be no nonsense, my dear." 
 
 Phyllis's tone was kind, but something in it made Nan see 
 that she expected obedience ; and was she not in every way 
 the most wonderful and beautiful creature Nan had ever 
 seen ? Nan's doubts vanished while Phyllis laid out note- 
 paper and pen and ink on a dainty little table drawn up to 
 one of the windows ; and, when Nan placed herself there to 
 write, her cousin sat down by the fire, with her slippered 
 toes on the fender, and her pretty hands, sparkling with 
 rings, folded gracefully in her lap. 
 
 " Now, Nan," she said, " begin your letter. Date it, ' The 
 Willows,' that is the name of this place. 'March 8. Dear 
 Mrs. Rupert.' " 
 
 Nan smiled quickly. 
 
 " Why Miss Cousin Phyllis," she said, looking up 
 from the paper ; " she would think me crazy : she is Aunt 
 Rebecca you know." 
 
 Miss Rolfs delicate eyebrows drew together in a little
 
 3 2 
 
 Nan. 
 
 frown. She waited a moment, and then, with an impatient 
 sigh, said : 
 
 " Very well, let it go ' Dear Aunt Kebecca.' " 
 
 Nan's pen scratched on, with many splutteriugs, for pen- 
 manship was her weak point, and had not been considered 
 a very necessary accomplishment in the Rupert household. 
 She looked up presently for further instructions. 
 
 " My Cousin Phyllis," dictated that young lady, " has 
 decided that I had better remain with her until I go to 
 Beverley." (" Oh !" ejaculated Nan)" My aunt, Miss Eolf, 
 has invited me to make her a long visit, and as, previous to 
 my going, there are many things to be attended to in 
 my wardrobe, etc., my Cousin Phyllis thinks it best to 
 keep me with her. I shall, of course, see you all before I 
 leave." 
 
 Nan's pen finally came to a stop. 
 
 " That is all," said Phyllis placidly. 
 
 " Then Pll just send my love, I suppose," said Nan. 
 
 After a little pause, Phyllis said " Yes," and Nan went to 
 work again. "When she brought the letter to her cousin for 
 inspection, this is how it was concluded : 
 
 " I hope you are all well, and that you'll tell Mary Sey- 
 mour when you see her, I'll go there before I leave, and I'll 
 write to Tommy; and tell Marian, please, I'll give her and 
 Philip all the peanuts that are in my drawer, and I'll write
 
 Nan. 33 
 
 them everything that happens at Beverley. I hope uncle's 
 jaw is better. Your loving niece, Nan." 
 
 Phyllis Rolf read the letter with so quiet an air that for 
 a moment Nan felt much relieved, feeling sure it was all 
 right ; but the first words startled her. 
 
 " That would not do, my dear, at all," Phyllis said coldly. 
 " You can not go to see this Tommy Seymour, and you had 
 better understand at once that your aunt will not like you 
 to write everything to your cousins here. Now, Nan, do 
 you see what I mean ?" 
 
 Nan began to see a little more clearly, yet her mind was 
 not yet made up : still, enough of Phyllis's meaning reached 
 her to bring two large tears to her eyes. They rolled down 
 her cheeks, while she looked silently at Phyllis and her letter. 
 
 " Don't be silly, my dear," said the young lady, standing 
 up and smiling good-naturedly. " There, finish your letter 
 with just your love ; that will be the best way." 
 
 And so Nan went back to the little table, brushing away 
 those first tears, and quietly obeyed her cousin. Miss Rolf 
 took the letter from her as soon as it was finished, and went 
 out of the room, while Nan sat still, wondering if Beverley 
 would be quite oil she hoped for. 
 
 Enough excitement remained to make it easy for Phyllis 
 to control her as she wished, and that young lady trusted to 
 time and absence working wonders. While Nan was sit-
 
 34 Nan. 
 
 ting absorbed in her thoughts, the door opened, and Lance 
 Kolf came suddenly into the room. He was a tall boy, 
 with a spare, handsome face, delicate as Phyllis's in feature, 
 but olive-tinted, and with more sweetness in the brown eyes 
 and the lines of the mouth. He came up to Kan, holding 
 out his hand with a pleasant smile. 
 
 " And are you Nan ?" he said, looking at her earnestly. 
 
 "Yes," was Nan's timid answer. 
 
 " "Well," said the boy cheerfully, " we are cousins. My 
 name is Lancelot Rolf. I hope we'll be very well ac- 
 quainted. So you are going to Beverley ?" 
 
 "Yes," was all Nan could contrive to say again. She 
 longed to ask a dozen questions of the bright, cheerful-look- 
 ing boy, who, although no older than Philip, looked so very 
 much like a little gentleman. 
 
 " Shall you like to go ?" Lance said, presently. 
 
 Nan really felt she couldn't go on saying " yes " to every- 
 thing, and so with a great effort she said : 
 
 " I want to go very much. Is it is it nice there ?" 
 
 " It's a jolly old house, where you are going," said Lance, 
 " but I don't know whether you'll enjoy it much, it's so slow, 
 so stupid. Still, perhaps you're not accustomed to much 
 fun." Lance could hardly imagine the cheesemonger's fam- 
 ily as very entertaining. 
 
 " Oh yes ! we have a great deal of fun sometimes," said
 
 Nan. 35 
 
 Nan, gaining confidence. " In winter we coast and skate, 
 and in summer there are always picnics, and sometimes a 
 circus." 
 
 " But at home wasn't there ever any fun at home ?" 
 
 Nan could not remember anything which impressed her 
 as particularly enjoyable in-doors. 
 
 " No," she said, slowly, " I don't think there was. Marian 
 always liked to tend the shop, but I never cared so much 
 for that. I didn't like the smell of the cheeses, don't you 
 know." 
 
 " It was a cheese-shop ?" Lance looked very much in- 
 terested. 
 
 " Cheese and butter, and eggs and hams." Nan recited 
 the list glibly. 
 
 " Well," said Lancelot very gravely, " there won't be any- 
 thing like that at Beverley ; and see here, Nan, I'll just give 
 you a friendly hint. I don't think I'd talk much about the 
 shop before Cousin Letitia. You see, she might not like 
 it don't be ashamed of it," added the boy, flushing a little ; 
 " I don't mean you to be mean about it only you won't 
 need to talk of it." 
 
 Nan felt that she had begun to put her old life behind 
 her when she was arrayed in the brown cashmere, and now 
 little by little she was learning to feel as the people around 
 her felt : that, after all, she would be expected to act and
 
 36 Nan. 
 
 appear and think very differently about everything as soon 
 as she was in Beverley. 
 
 " "What do you do ?" said Nan, looking brightly at her 
 new acquaintance. " Do you live at Beverley ?" 
 
 Lance nodded. 
 
 "When I'm home," he said. "I come to school near 
 here at Barnabas Academy. When I'm home I live quite 
 near to where you're going to be. Oh, I do lots of things ! 
 boys are so different from girls. I'm captain of our base- 
 ball club, for one thing, and we are jolly good cricketers too, 
 I tell you. At home I do all sorts of things. Phyllis and 
 I are great chums: Phyllis is a regular brick." He might 
 have said more, but that at this moment Phyllis reappeared. 
 Nan looked at her a little anxiously. She wondered if she 
 was going to feel offended with her about the note ; but 
 the young lady was perfectly cheerful, and even kissed Nan 
 when she said, "Now, dear, we will go down to supper. 
 Mrs. Grange is waiting."
 
 Nan. 37 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 spent the next week in a perfect whirl. Had any- 
 thing been left to her discretion, or her power of decision, 
 even, I am afraid the result would have worried Miss Phyl- 
 lis Kolf very much ; but that young lady took everything 
 very calmly into her own hands, and Nan soon learned to 
 find it both an easy and an agreeable task to obey her. 
 
 Naturally, Nan wanted to go and see the Kuperts, but 
 this visit was postponed day after day ; and finally it was 
 Mrs. Rupert who, with Marian, broke the ice and came up 
 to see Nan. 
 
 It happened in this way. Breakfast and prayers were 
 over in Mrs. Grange's house. Nan had, as usual, established 
 herself in the window -seat of the little sitting-room up- 
 stairs with a book, and was wondering what new excitement 
 the day would bring forth, when, on looking up from the 
 page before her, she saw two figures enter the gate. In an 
 instant she recognized Mrs. Rupert and Marian. 
 
 Only three times in her life could she remember having 
 seen her aunt so gorgeously attired, so that she knew Mrs.
 
 38 Nan. 
 
 Eupert felt this to be an important occasion; but, after 
 spending even a week with Mrs. Grange and Phyllis, 
 how gaudy Mrs. Kupert's shawl and bonnet looked ! Nan 
 involuntarily shuddered, and then whether it was a half- 
 lonesome or half-ashamed feeling she could not tell she 
 began to cry. 
 
 Lance was out in the hall pulling some mechanical toy 
 he had bought to pieces. Nan dashed out to him. 
 
 " My aunt and Marian are here !" she exclaimed. 
 
 Lance's eyes fairly danced. 
 
 "Oh, what fun!" he said. "I'd give a dollar to see 
 Phyllis meet them." 
 
 " But, Lance," said Nan, " it isn't such fun " She 
 scarcely knew what to say, and turned around as she saw 
 some one coming up the staircase. It was Phyllis. She 
 came over to the two children, and said very gravely : 
 
 "Nan, I want you to come down -stairs and see your 
 aunt ; and " Phyllis looked earnestly at the child " I 
 hope you remember all I have said? There must be no 
 offer of intimacy." 
 
 Nan stood very still, looking up into Phyllis's beautiful, 
 haughty face. 
 
 " Yes," she said in a low tone, nodding her head gravely. 
 
 v See " Phyllis looked carefully at her dress. " Come 
 in here and put on something else."
 
 Nan. 39 
 
 To Nan dressing had become a perfect delight, for never 
 before had she thought of owning such clothes. She fol- 
 lowed Phyllis into her room, and waited while that young 
 lady turned over various things. In the course of the week, 
 four new dresses had come home for Nan, besides the brown 
 cashmere, and from these Phyllis, with a little laugh, chose 
 the brightest and prettiest indeed, the only silk one among 
 them a soft blue silk, made simply enough, but richer than 
 anything Nan had ever thought of as her own. It seemed 
 odd to wear her best dress in the morning; yet, as Nan 
 followed her cousin down-stairs, she felt a thrill of pleasure 
 to think her aunt and Marian should see her splendor. 
 
 Mrs. Rupert, with her daughter, was sitting in the long 
 parlor. They had come determined to reproach little Nan 
 with neglect of them indeed, if need be, to say something 
 harsh to that fine -young lady, Miss Rolf ; but the elegance 
 and quiet of the long room, with its pictures and books and 
 soft hangings, quite overcame them. They sat very still on 
 the edge of their chairs, looking at each other and at the 
 door, and only raising their voices to whispers. Marian, if 
 the truth were known, was inclined to be rather defiant 
 when Nan appeared, but Mrs. Rupert kept looking at her 
 menacingly every time she gave her head a pert little toss. 
 
 " Keep quiet !" she said, just as Nan and Miss Rolf ap- 
 peared ; and then she looked up, and on seeing Nan come up
 
 4O Nan. 
 
 the beautiful room in her blue silk dress, with lace in her 
 neck and sleeves, and shining kid boots, and her hair pret- 
 tily brushed, she drew a long breath, and exclaimed : 
 
 " Well, by the powers above, be that Nan Kolf ?" 
 
 Even the fine house and the beautiful Miss Phyllis were 
 forgotten. Mrs. Rupert sat still, staring at her little step- 
 niece, and it was Phyllis who came to every one's relief. 
 
 " Sit down, Annice," she said in her gentlest tone ; and 
 then, smiling very affably, she continued : " Ton see, Mrs. 
 Rupert, I could not very well let Nan go away; there were 
 so many things to get for her ; her life is going to be such a 
 busy one, studying and all that" here Phyllis just glanced 
 at Nan's fine dress ; " there would, I knew, be no time to 
 buy her things in Beverley." 
 
 There was a pause, and then Miss Rolf continued, "Nan, 
 take your cousin up-stairs. I will talk to Mrs. Rupert." 
 
 And Nan obeyed. She and Marian found very little to 
 say to each other in the luxurious sitting-room up-stairs. 
 Mariain was still defiant, and Nan was nervous and per- 
 plexed ; so they talked of very uninteresting things, and 
 Nan could hardly put anything into words. She asked for 
 Philip, and begged that he might come and see her. 
 
 " I don't like to go out without Cousin Phyllis's permis- 
 sion," she faltered. 
 
 Marian burst out laughing.
 
 Nan. 4 1 
 
 " Oh, you're a fine lady now, Nan !" she said ; " too 
 good for us, thafs easily seen," and she gave Nan's dress 
 a twitch. 
 
 Nan hardly knew what to say. She was neither ungrate- 
 ful nor hard-hearted, but she was bewildered and perplexed. 
 It was a relief when Phyllis sent for her. Even when Mrs. 
 Rupert and Marian said good-bye, she did not know what 
 to say, and so she said nothing; but she cried as she kissed 
 her aunt, even though she saw Phyllis was annoyed by it. 
 
 And no more was said of her going to visit the Ruperts, 
 that morning being the only good-bye attempted.
 
 Nan. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 No one must suppose that Nan did not regret leaving her 
 aunt's family with so little ceremony. She really longed to 
 spend a whole day with them, but, by the time she had been 
 ten days at "The "Willows," she had learned to do jnst 
 what Phyllis told her was best, without thinking much for 
 herself. Only once did she resent her cousin's authority, 
 and that was when she was told by Phyllis she ought not 
 to talk so much of Philip to Lance. 
 
 " But I could only talk good of my Cousin Philip," Nan 
 said a little defiantly. 
 
 " No doubt," rejoined Phyllis with perfect good-humor ; 
 " but Lance can't know such a boy ; and, Nan, Lance has 
 some low tastes of the kind, as it is." 
 
 And then Nan flashed out. 
 
 "Oh, Cousin Phyllis!" she exclaimed, "how dare you! 
 Philip is not low he could not be ! He is better far, far 
 kinder and smarter and everything even than Lance, who 
 will, I suppose, one day be a fine gentleman !" 
 
 And, in spite of Phyllis's set, stern look, Nan dashed out
 
 Nan. 43 
 
 of the room and into her own little cosy nest, where she 
 stopped, panting for breath. It was Sunday night. She was 
 to leave the next day for Beverley, and, sitting on her little 
 bed, she determined, come what would, to see Philip and 
 bid him good-bye for herself. But how could it be accom- 
 plished? Of course she was not a prisoner; but she hardly 
 felt it right to do anything she knew Phyllis would have 
 peremptorily forbidden. Still, her cheeks burned at the 
 thought of what Philip might say of her, if he knew she 
 had left forever with not one word to her old playfellow 1 
 And then came the remembrance of all Philip's kindness : 
 how many times he had saved her a scolding even a whip- 
 ping ; the books he had bought her with his hardly earned 
 pocket-money. Looking back, all her few luxuries or pleas- 
 ures seemed to have come through her cousin's goodness and 
 unselfishness; "not that he hasn't been horrid and cross 
 enough sometimes," thought little Nan, sitting on the edge 
 of her bed, and allowing her tears to fall on her " second- 
 best " dress quite unchecked. " Bjjt he always was good to 
 me, really" and this decision seemed to put an end to any 
 idea of what she owed to Phyllis. She rose up very softly, 
 and took out her new hat and jacket, and put them on. 
 Then, with one glance at Phyllis's open door, she rushed 
 swiftly down the hall, and the back staircase, whemce she 
 knew it would be easy to make her escape. It was about
 
 44 Nan. 
 
 seven o'clock. People were slowly going on their way to 
 church. Nan thought she would risk finding Philip at 
 home, for Mrs. Rupert never left the house and store entire- 
 ly alone, and it was usually Marian whom her mother decid- 
 ed to take with her in the evening. She had a general 
 idea that Philip, being a boy, might get into mischief if 
 he went out in the evening, and to Philip these hours of 
 solitude with his minerals and shells and books were most 
 welcome. 
 
 Nan sped along the well-known streets as fast as she 
 dared, and reached the butter-and-cheese store with a sense 
 of relief, for thus far all was right. A solitary light was 
 burning in the little sitting-room, where she had sat for the 
 last time only ten days before ; yet how long ago it seemed ! 
 Nan stood still a moment in the garden, and then, going up 
 to the side-door, slowly turned the handle. She went along 
 the short corridor, and very gently opened the sitting-room 
 door. She had guessed right. Philip was alone sitting in 
 the usual disorder, with his elbows on the table, his hands 
 on his head, absorbed in a book. 
 
 " Philip !" Nan half-whispered. The boy started, looked 
 at Nan in a bewildered way, and then jumped to his feet. 
 
 " Nan 1" he exclaimed, " come in. I am glad you came. 
 Ain't you going away, after all, with your fine relations ?" 
 
 " Oh, yes !" Nan answered, just a little dolefully. " I'm
 
 Nan. 45 
 
 going to-morrow; and I came I ran away, Phil, to say 
 good-bye to you. I guessed you'd be alone." 
 
 " You're a trump, Nan," said the boy, delightedly. " Oh, 
 ain't you going to write to me about everything ?" 
 
 Kan looked pained ; but Philip did not see her expres- 
 sion, for he had begun to rummage among his shells. 
 
 "See here, Nan," he said, turning around before she 
 answered; "here's the old pink shell we used to make a 
 boat of. There, you can have it all for yourself now a 
 remembrance, don't you see ?" 
 
 Nan's bright eyes were full of tears. She took the shell, 
 and nodded softly. 
 
 " Thank you, Philip dear. I'm afraid I mustn't stay I 
 must say good-bye now, or they'll come after me. Thank 
 you so much, Phil; and remember, whatever happens, I 
 never, never, never could forget you. And Pll always love 
 you." 
 
 And honest-hearted little Nan squeezed Phil around the 
 neck convulsively, and before another word was said had 
 fled away. 
 
 Going up the street, she rejoiced that she had so success- 
 fully accomplished her errand ; yet another idea had come 
 to her mind. Probably no one at " The Willows " would 
 be any the wiser for her little flight ; but would it not be 
 what Lance would have called "squarer" to go herself and
 
 46 Nan. 
 
 tell Phyllis? Nan's nature, impulsive and full of faults 
 though it might be, was honest and true in every fibre, and 
 it did not take her long to come to a decision as to what 
 was right. She made her way noiselessly in at the side 
 entrance without being discovered, but once in the upper 
 hall she went boldly to her cousin's door. Phyllis had not 
 stirred from the easy-chair in which Nan had left her. The 
 light from the lamp on a table near her showed Nan a very 
 different room from the shabby parlor in which she had jnst 
 said good-bye to Philip ; and, as the little girl went in, she 
 had a queer sort of feeling that she had said good-bye to 
 shabbiness and dirt and disorder forever; but something 
 else was struggling within her, as she looked at Phyllis's 
 fair, beautiful, cold face. " I haven't said good-bye to my 
 conscience, any way," she was thinking ; and with a brave 
 resolve she walked up to her cousin's side. 
 
 "Cousin Phyllis," she said in a low tone, "I've been 
 down to Aunt Rupert's and seen Philip, and said good-bye 
 to him. I knew you wouldn't like it but I'm not sorry 
 I did it." And here Nan's voice broke, and she burst into 
 tears. 
 
 For an instant Phyllis felt very angry. Then, before she 
 spoke, the honesty of the child touched her. It touched 
 her, but not as the same thing would have touched my little 
 Nan. The brilliant young lady had to admire the child's
 
 'WHATEVER HAPPENS, I NEVER, NEVER COULD FORGET YOU.'"
 
 Nan. 47 
 
 fearlessness, yet she also thought quickly how receiving her 
 confession kindly might be a "good thing" in the future 
 might strengthen her influence over the possible heiress of 
 all Miss Rolf's fortune. 
 
 " Very well, Nan," she said, kissing the little bowed 
 head ; " we will agree to forget it. Now go away and get 
 ready for prayers. Mrs. Grange will soon be home." 
 
 And Nan, feeling a great load off her little heart, went 
 into her own room and put away her shell in the big trunk 
 already full of her new possessions. 
 
 She was grateful to Phyllis, and, best of all, relieved of 
 what would certainly have been a burden to her con- 
 science ; and when the prayers and lesson of the day were 
 read, my little heroine felt that her last night in Bromfield 
 was a happy one, after all.
 
 48 Nan. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 EVERYTHING ill Mrs. Grange's large, fine house, the sud- 
 den change in her circumstances, the new clothes, and new 
 prospects had kept Kan very much subdued before they 
 started on their wonderful journey ; but by the time they 
 were fairly on the train and nearing Beverley, Miss Phyllis 
 Rolf found she had her hands full in keeping pace with her 
 little charge. To begin with, Nan's old " flibberty-gibberty " 
 ways, as Mrs. Rupert used to call them, had reasserted them- 
 selves. She had to have her hat and her collar and her tie 
 rearranged half a dozen times, and even her face washed 
 and her hair brushed twice; and then she asked Phyllis 
 a dozen questions at a time. Finally Phyllis said rath- 
 peremptorily, " Nan, if you will sit perfectly still for ten 
 minutes we shall soon be in Beverley I'll answer some 
 of your questions." 
 
 They had chairs in the parlor-car, and Nan wheeled hers 
 around with a very bright expression. She wanted to know 
 something more definite of her Aunt Letitia and the house 
 at Beverley. It seemed too bad that it had begun to rain,
 
 Nan. 49 
 
 and that it would be nearly dark when they got there ; but 
 then everything couldn't go on being just perfectly de- 
 lightful. 
 
 " It is a large brick house," said Phyllis. " There is a 
 short drive up to the front-door, but a nice lawn and gar- 
 dens at the side ; and, by the way, your aunt will be very 
 particular about your going into the garden without her 
 permission. She never allows any one to pick flowers by 
 themselves." 
 
 "Is she very cross ?" said Nan. 
 
 Phyllis laughed. 
 
 " Oh no !" she answered. " But, Nan I had better tell 
 you she is rather peculiar in some ways. She never likes 
 any one to contradict her or to have opinions of their own. 
 You must always seem to think just as she does." 
 
 " But suppose I don't" said honest Nan, opening her 
 eyes to a perfect stare. 
 
 Phyllis had a very pretty white forehead so smooth that 
 every little line showed in it ; and, though it was a very 
 small frown, Nan saw one distinctly between her eyebrows. 
 
 " Then you must try and think so," she answered. " Now 
 I'll tell you more about the house. There are a great many 
 windows, some looking on the gardens, some towards the 
 street. The street just there is rather hilly ; indeed, ' Rolf 
 House,' as it is always called, is near the top of the street.
 
 50 Nan. 
 
 You go in by a wide door, and there is a square hall, with a 
 staircase going up at the left side. There is a big fireplace 
 in the hall ; on one side is a room called the black-walnut 
 parlor, on the other a long drawing-room ; and the library is 
 on one side, and the dining-room on the other. Everything 
 is very handsome." 
 
 " So I'll have to be careful of the things," said Nan, who 
 was perfectly quiet, listening. 
 
 Phyllis laughed. 
 
 " You won't have to think much of that, I imagine," she 
 answered. "You are to be very well looked after, I can 
 assure you, Nan !" 
 
 Nan waited a minute, and then said : 
 
 " Kept very strict, do you mean, Cousin Phyllis ?" 
 
 " Very," said Phyllis. 
 
 " Well, where do you live ?" asked Nan, after puckering 
 her face up into a dozen wrinkles over this new idea. 
 
 " We live in College Street," said Phyllis, " about half a 
 mile from ' Kolf House.' Ours is a rather shabby house, 
 though it's large. Did I tell you about my sisters and 
 brothers?" 
 
 Nan's face lighted up instantly with one of those sweet 
 unselfish or unconscious looks which made her positively 
 pretty. 
 
 " No 1" she said" but do please do, Cousin Phyllis."
 
 Nan. 5 1 
 
 " Well, there are six of them Laiice and Laura, and the 
 twins Joan and Dick, and the younger boys, Alfred and 
 Bertie." 
 
 " All my cousins?" said Nan, feeling as if the world was 
 getting to be a very big place. 
 
 " Every one," laughed Phyllis. 
 
 And now in the pale wintry dusk they began to see the 
 lights of the town, and Nan's heart beat very quickly when 
 the train stopped, and she found herself following Phyllis 
 out upon the covered platform, where she saw a servant in 
 livery come up respectfully, and stand by while her cousin 
 gave him directions about the trunks. 
 
 Nan's education had been of the most fragmentary kind ; 
 but it so happened that she had read two or three novels, 
 or stories, in which heroines had arrived at a railway sta- 
 tion, to be met by fine servants in livery, and driven to 
 fine houses, where they were received in great state. Now, 
 as she stood, a little half - frightened figure clinging to 
 Phyllis's side, it flashed across her mind that she was just 
 such a heroine, and it gave her a great deal of sudden 
 courage. She thought of the big brick house with all its 
 splendors, and how in a short time she would make a sort 
 of state entry there would there be a row of servants in 
 the hall, she wondered ? "Well, something very especial to 
 welcome her Nan felt she could be sure of that.
 
 52 Nan. 
 
 And then Phyllis said, " Come, Nan ;" and they went out 
 of the noisy station in the dusk, and up a flight of steps, 
 where, just as Nan expected, a very grand carriage was 
 waiting. In a moment more they were whirling away, 
 through a pretty, hilly town, where the shop-windows were 
 just being lighted, and where there was a long bridge over 
 a river, and a line of hills in the distance. Nan felt sure 
 she was really like one of her dearest heroines, and only 
 regretted her name was so short and unromantic. 
 
 "I shall try and imagine I am called Florizel," she 
 thought, " or Alexandrina." And before she had come to 
 any decision about the two names, the carriage rolled in a 
 gateway, beyond which Nan could see the large brick house, 
 with its many windows irregularly lighted.
 
 Nan. 53 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 quite forgot she was Florizel in the bewilderment 
 of the next few moments. The door was opened widely 
 a stream of light poured out up the gravel path, and in the 
 glow she saw a stately old lady standing with an elderly 
 man-servant at her side. Then in a confused way she heard 
 the lady say, " How do you do, Annice ?" and she felt her- 
 self being kissed, while as if in a dream she found herself 
 following the old lady and Phyllis down the hall and into 
 a square, primly furnished parlor. Here Nan's heart began 
 to beat a little less wildly, and she took courage to look 
 about her. First, of course, at Miss Rolf, who stood talking 
 to Phyllis in an undertone about the journey, and some- 
 thing about Nan herself. Stately and severe she no doubt 
 looked, yet Nan felt drawn towards her aunt in a curious 
 way she could not explain. Her face must once have 
 looked like Phyllis's, Nan thought : there was the same 
 finely chiselled outline of feature, the straight nose and the 
 well-defined eyebrows ; but Miss Rolf, for all her years, 
 had something in her face which Nan liked better than
 
 54 Nan. 
 
 anything about pretty, blooming Cousin Phyllis. Sitting 
 over by the tall, old-fashioned chimney-piece, little Nan 
 took note of the old lady's exquisite silver-gray silk dress, 
 the white lace kerchief and cap, the beautiful white hands, 
 and the flash of opals in a brooch at her throat. Where 
 had the child ever seen anything so queenly and beautiful ? 
 Miss Kolf did not guess what was going on in the mind 
 of her little niece that first ten minutes. Inwardly Nan 
 had decided she was quite willing to submit to her aunt's 
 rule, and that she should like to be with her. The room 
 was undoubtedly the black- walnut parlor of which Phyllis 
 had spoken ; it was furnished in dark colors, but everything 
 was refined and old-fashioned and comfortable. There 
 were candles lighted in tall silver candlesticks on the chim- 
 ney-piece and on a side-table, and a wood fire glowed on 
 the hearth. Presently the door opened, and the man-servant 
 Nan had seen came in with a large tray, which he set down 
 on a table in the centre of the room, and then Miss Eolf 
 broke off her conversation with Phyllis and turned to little 
 Nan. 
 
 " I presume you feel hungry, my dear," she said kindly ; 
 "and you too, Phyllis. I thought you would like some- 
 thing to eat in here." 
 
 Phyllis had thrown herself down in a large easy-chair 
 near the fire. " How good of you, Cousin Letty !" she said,
 
 PHYLLIS TELLS MISS ROLF ABOUT THE JOURNEY.
 
 Nan. 55 
 
 vith a long-drawn sigh. "Everything always looks so 
 lomelike and tempting here." 
 
 Miss Kolf only smiled in a quiet way, and watched the 
 servant critically while he set out the dainty little supper, 
 to which she invited the travellers, pouring out their tea, 
 and urging the biscuits and oysters and other things upon 
 Nan, who, hungry as she was, felt almost too shy to eat. 
 
 "And now I must go," Phyllis said, after she had 
 finished her supper. " Good-bye, little Nan ; I'll see you 
 in the morning." 
 
 " No, Phyllis dear," said Miss Kolf, quietly, " it will be 
 as well not to come to see the child to-morrow. I think she 
 will be better quiet." 
 
 Nan said nothing; but as Cousin Phyllis kissed her good- 
 bye, she clung to her fervently a wild longing to run 
 away back to Bromfield, even to the butter -shop, com- 
 ing over her ; but in a moment the door had closed upon 
 Phyllis's figure. She was alone with her aunt, and a feel- 
 ing came over her, for the first time, that a new life really 
 had begun. 
 
 " You had better eat something more," Miss Rolf was 
 saying. " No ? Well then, perhaps, my dear, you would like 
 to go to bed. I will not keep you up for prayers to-night. 
 Generally I read them at half-past eight." 
 
 Miss Rolf touched a bell, and when it was answered she
 
 56 Nan. 
 
 said, " Please send Mrs. Heriot here," and in a moment a 
 pleasant-faced, elderly woman appeared who looked at Nan 
 in a very kindly critical way. 
 
 " This is Miss Annice Rolf, Mrs. Heriot," said the old 
 lady. " Will you take her up to her room, and you need 
 not stay with her after she is in bed. Good-night, my 
 child." 
 
 Nan kissed Miss Rolf very timidly, and went away with 
 Mrs. Heriot, who held her little hand in a firm grasp that 
 was very comforting. 
 
 They passed down the matted hall and up a staircase to 
 the left. Above, a narrow corridor led to three little steps 
 which dipped down into Nan's room. It was small and 
 comfortable not very bright, perhaps, for all the furniture 
 was old-fashioned and sombre ; but there was a window with 
 a deep seat in it, and some interesting-looking pictures on 
 the walls. The bed - curtains were of chintz, the pattern 
 of which was a series of pictures, and the wall-paper re- 
 peated a design of a garden and a terrace, along which a 
 lady and gentleman were walking. Altogether Nan thought, 
 as Mrs. Heriot lighted the candles, that she should like her 
 new room and enjoy the walls and the window. 
 
 She wished Mrs. Heriot would talk a little more while 
 she helped her to undress, but, except for asking her one 
 or two things about the journey, she made no remarks.
 
 Nan. 57 
 
 When she had tucked Nan into bed, she just nodded at her 
 and smiled, and, taking the candle in her hand, walked away, 
 her footsteps sounding softly until she was down-stairs. 
 
 Nan lay still, half-afraid, but on the whole comfortable. 
 She had so much to think and wonder about ! To-morrow 
 would certainly be a wonderful day ; but why should her 
 aunt object to Phyllis's coming back? Nan's little brain 
 soon got all sorts of things in a tangle, and she fell asleep 
 to dream that she was in Bromfield selling butter to Mrs. 
 Heriot.
 
 58 Nan. 
 
 CHAPTEE XL 
 
 " MAY 16, isn't it, Mrs. Heriot 2" 
 
 Nan was standing in the window of the black -walnut 
 parlor, looking out upon the wet lawn and gardens, while 
 Mrs. Heriot was engaged in putting away some fine china 
 in one of the cupboards. 
 
 "May 16, in all its particulars, sure enough," rejoined 
 Mrs. Heriot. " You're here just two weeks to-day." 
 
 Nan gave a little sigh. 
 
 " Well, it seems longer," she said, turning around. " Mrs. 
 Heriot, when will my cousins be here, do you think ?" 
 
 " Oh, in half an hour, I should say." 
 
 " Will they mind the wet?" 
 
 Mrs. Heriot laughed. 
 
 " Not they I wished they did ; for they're only too likely 
 to come tramping up my floors with their muddy boots." 
 
 " But aren't they afraid of Aunt Letitia ?" exclaimed 
 Nan, inwardly delighted by the idea of cousins who were 
 fearless. 
 
 " Not one bit now," said Mrs. Heriot, turning around to
 
 59 
 
 examine a delicate bit of porcelain more carefully in the 
 light. "You'll have to keep them out of mischief the 
 whole time. If Lance were home he would see to them 
 though he's no quiet lamb himself but Dicksie and Joan 
 are enough to bring the house about one's ears if they 
 were let." 
 
 " Are they the twins ?" 
 
 Mrs. Heriot nodded. 
 
 Nan returned to her window, eagerly watching the bit of 
 the street which just below the lawn. she could see quite 
 plainly. 
 
 As Mrs. Heriot had said, she had been two weeks at Rolf 
 House, and in that time she had learned so much of its ways 
 that she felt as if her stay had been much longer. The 
 household was a very quiet, orderly one, and if Miss Rolf 
 felt that Nan's being in it made a decided difference, at least 
 she never showed it, for, so far as Nan could see, nothing 
 had been changed on her account. True, she had lessons 
 every morning from a young lady, in whom Nan could not 
 feel much interested, she was so prim and quiet, and appar- 
 ently so very learned, and Miss Eolf examined her every 
 evening. Between whiles, she spent much of her time with 
 Mrs. Heriot, who was a sort of housekeeper and general 
 factotum, learning to sew and to do worsted-work; and 
 regularly every afternoon she went for a walk or a drive
 
 60 Nan. 
 
 with her aunt. These occasions were Nan's only periods 
 of real enjoyment, for they usually went into the town 
 either to shop or visit some poor person, and once or twice 
 Cousin Phyllis had been with them. At seven o'clock Nan 
 took tea with Miss Rolf, after which they would sit an 
 hour or so in the drawing-room or black- walnut parlor, 
 where sometimes Nan read aloud to her aunt, and some- 
 times her aunt talked over the lessons Miss Prior had given 
 her for the next day. Miss Rolf was always kind in her 
 manner, but very, very cold and reserved, yet to Nan there 
 was something very wonderful about the beautifully dressed, 
 stately figure of her aunt. She longed sometimes to draw 
 nearer to her. When she received the chilly good-night kiss 
 which dismissed her for bed, she had often been tempted to 
 fling her arms about her aunt's neck and hug her wildly ; but 
 she was always glad afterwards to have restrained such an 
 impulse, for what would Miss Rolf have thought of her ? 
 Impetuous little Nan shuddered sometimes to think ! 
 
 But now a diversion was expected. Her cousins from 
 College Street had all been invited to spend the afternoon 
 and take tea, and Nan had been dressed and waiting for 
 half an hour. Miss Rolf was out for the day, but Mrs. 
 Ileriot had received full instructions as to what they could 
 and could not do, and the old lady would be home for the 
 usual seven-o'clock tea, they might be certain.
 
 Nan. 6 1 
 
 " There !" cried Nan, darting a look around at Mrs. 
 Heriot " there they are !" 
 
 "Dear, dear!" ejaculated Mrs. Heriot, coming forward 
 with a cup and the duster in her hand. " Yes ; sure 
 enough there they are, sure." 
 
 What Nan, pressing her face eagerly against the window- 
 pane, beheld was a curious, rollicking procession of young 
 people coming up the hilly street. Evidently the twins 
 first a tall, lank young girl, with black hair and dark eyes, 
 and a boy nearly her counterpart in size and coloring were 
 amusing themselves by jumping over all the puddles, while 
 behind walked or ran two younger boys and "a girl of 
 fourteen, everything being on the hop, skip, and jump 
 with one and all ; but could the tall, graceful figure in the 
 waterproof be Cousin Phyllis ? Nan could scarcely believe 
 the evidence of her own eyes : yet it was certainly she 
 there could be no doubt of this ; but why should she, of all 
 people, allow such pranks ? 
 
 I must say that the pranks delighted Nan. She grinned 
 broadly from within her window, and the tribe of cousins 
 saw her and executed various little antics before they 
 reached the door, in merry response. Only the girl of 
 about fourteen, walking near to Phyllis, offered her no such 
 salute. Nan decided that she looked haughty, and per- 
 haps disagreeable.
 
 62 Nan. 
 
 By the time they had reached the door, some degree of 
 quiet seemed to have reached them, though as they poured 
 into the hall they were all panting from the variety of ex- 
 ercises in which they had been indulging. 
 
 " Dear me, Miss Phyllis !" said Mrs. Heriot, who had 
 hurried out into the hall, " you must be quite wet. Do let 
 me have your things." 
 
 Phyllis submitted gracefully to having them taken from 
 her. 
 
 "And the children perhaps," faltered Mrs. Heriot, "I 
 might take them right out into the kitchen to dry a mo- 
 ment." 
 
 The tribe showed signs of joy at this suggestion ; but 
 they also looked eagerly at the new cousin standing half- 
 shyly in the parlor-door. 
 
 And then that involuntary look and air of sweet uncon- 
 sciousness came over little Nan. 
 
 "Oh, may I come too?" she said; and before any one 
 could say how it was done she was in the midst of the 
 cousins, who were looking at her and talking to her all in a 
 quick, excited way all except Laura, who had drawn back 
 close to where Phyllis sat on one of the hall chairs. 
 
 Nan looked up shyly towards her. She was very pret- 
 ty fairer and daintier than Cousin Phyllis, but how 
 different from the latter's smiling glance was her frown,
 
 Nan. 63 
 
 and the half-pout which spoiled the curve of her pretty 
 mouth ! 
 
 "Oh, do come!" cried Joan, the tallest of the twins. 
 " Oh, Mrs. Heriot Phyllis can't we go at once?" 
 
 It seemed as if neither of the two appealed to had any 
 idea of resistance. Phyllis, divested of her wet garments, 
 sauntered towards the parlor, closely followed by Laura, 
 while the rest trooped after Mrs. Heriot to the kitchen. 
 
 The kitchen at Rolf House was down-stairs, and was a 
 place which had already fascinated Nan it was so large 
 and bright and homelike. Susan, the cook, though a trifle 
 cross, was a very interesting person, capable of telling long 
 stories, and supplying young people with good things out 
 of tin boxes in her corner cupboards. There were high 
 windows in this kitchen, and to the left were the pantry 
 and dairy-room. Susan had under her a young girl named 
 Martha, with whom Nan longed secretly to make friends. 
 When the cousins trooped down into the kitchen, Martha 
 was kneading bread, and Susan was preparing some cheese. 
 
 In a few moments they were all sitting about the fire, 
 in spite of Susan's exclamations and Mrs. Heriot's air of 
 dread as to what might happen, and very soon a liberal 
 supply of doughnuts and cookies was dispensed. Then 
 Joan exclaimed, " Mrs. Heriot please we want to go to 
 the attic. May we ?"
 
 64 Nan. 
 
 I Mrs. Heriot began to look dubious, and Nan said, " What's 
 in the attic ?" 
 
 " Oh," said Dick eagerly, " it's the jolliest old place to 
 play in ! You'll like it ever so much. Mayn't we ?" 
 
 " If you'll behave yourselves," said Mrs. Heriot, as grave- 
 ly as possible. " Now mind, Dicksie boy ; no tantaran- 
 tums." 
 
 Whatever they were, Dicksie readily agreed to give way 
 to none ; and, as soon as their wet feet were dry, the young 
 Rolfs from College Street were on their way to a part of 
 the house Nan had never seen. 
 
 Meanwhile Joan had tight hold of Nan's brown little 
 hand : she had already whispered to her, " Nan, I love you ;" 
 and Nan had responded by a fervent hug, which, although 
 it nearly stifled Joan, had seemed to produce a complete 
 understanding between them.
 
 Nan. 65 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE attic at Kolf House was a large, irregular place, 
 lighted by queer little windows, and which extended over 
 the entire house. There were some bins in it, the bottoms 
 partially covered with nuts, and several old trunks, some 
 broken pieces of furniture, and a locked chest of drawers. 
 A swing had been hung from one of the beams, and Bertie 
 and Alfred, the younger boys, had left their carpentering 
 tools in one of the many irregular corners. 
 
 " Did you never come up here ?" asked Joan of Nan, as 
 they arrived at the last step of the attic stairs. Joan had 
 a thin little face, and a queer way of puckering up her lips 
 after she said anything. She looked, as Nan expressed it 
 to herself, " ready for anything" 
 
 " No," said Nan. " You see, I've just gone wherever I 
 was told to." 
 
 " Oh !" exclaimed Dick, in tones either of dismay or dis- 
 appointment. " Are you that kind of a girl ?" 
 
 " What do you mean ?" said Nan, trying to laugh. " See
 
 66 Nan. 
 
 here, won't you tell me all your names and ages, and every- 
 thing?" 
 
 Joan's eyes twinkled. " Oh, wait, Nan !" she said. " It'll 
 be such fun if you don't know. Now please we'll make 
 a game of it : see here." For a moment the boys seemed 
 rebellious, but Joan quelled them by a look. " See, Nan, 
 you sit down there." 
 
 Nan, quite willing to be amused, especially by Joan, sat 
 down in an old arm-chair, while her spirited cousin had in 
 a moment whisked all the others into the bins. She then 
 went over to one side of the attic, where there was a tall, 
 rather tattered screen, which she dragged across, placing it 
 at an appropriate distance between Nan and the young 
 people who were skirmishing around in the bins.. Over 
 this she hung some newspapers, saying, meanwhile, " We've 
 often played at theatricals this way." 
 
 " Is it to be theatricals ?" inquired Nan from her place as 
 audience. 
 
 "Not quite" responded Joan, shaking her elf-locks. 
 " Because, you see, it will be all true" 
 
 She then retired behind the screen, and held various half- 
 audible conversations with the children in the bins. Nan 
 could hear Alfred complaining that the nuts hurt his knees, 
 and Dick inquiring if he could say some poetry when he 
 came out ; but Joan evidently governed them all satisfac-
 
 Nan. 67 
 
 torily, for in a short time there was silence. Then came the. 
 sound of a singular kind of music. It seemed to be produced 
 by Joan " murmuring " through closed teeth, and as it had 
 no particular tune, or idea of any, it was, in an attic, rather 
 melancholy ; but at last there emerged from behind the 
 screen a figure wrapped in an old red curtain Nan had 
 seen in a corner, and Joan's voice said, " Ricardo Rolfo 
 appear !" And, with some scrambling, Dicksie came out, 
 standing very still. 
 
 " This boy," said Joan, in a sepulchral tone, " is Mr. 
 Walter Rolf's second son. He is nearly thirteen. He at- 
 tends the High-school, and has taken three prizes. He has 
 the honor of being Joan Rolf's twin brother, although, alas ! 
 he cauefes her more pain than joy. He will recite." 
 
 Whereupon Dicksie began, in a tragic tone : 
 
 " And this to me he said : 
 And t'were not for thy hoary beard, 
 The* hand of Richard had not spared 
 To cleave the Joan's head." 
 
 He made a dab towards Joan as he said this, and Nan in- 
 terposed : 
 
 " Oh, I know that ! It's out of Marmion ; but it really 
 says, ' The hand of Marmion had not spared to cleave the 
 Douglas' head.' "
 
 68 Nan. 
 
 " Oh well, I know, Nan," said Joan's voice from inside 
 her wrappings. " But you needn't be so particular ; we say 
 lots of pieces like that and put our own names in. Now," 
 she added, in an altered voice, "Kicardo, retire. Next!" 
 And Alfred's curly little head appeared. 
 
 " This," said Joan, " is Alfred, so-called the great, as his 
 appetite never fails. He is nearly eleven. He is most pro- 
 ficient in standing upon his head. Alfred heads !" 
 
 Whereupon Alfred's head suddenly took the place of his 
 heels, the latter dangling an instant in the air before Joan 
 suddenly slapped them downwards, and he retired very pur- 
 ple and rather irritated. 
 
 " Next !" Joan exclaimed. And Bertie, much the worse 
 for nuts, appeared. Bertie had Phyllis's soft eyes and gen- 
 tle look, with Joan's dark hair. Nan instinctively felt,'' He's 
 a darling," and all the time Joan spoke he kept trying to 
 hide a dear little dimpling smile. 
 
 " This young person," said Joan, in a most terrible voice, 
 " fears neither parent nor sister. He is aged in years seven. 
 Yet he is old in iniquities, such as running away, tearing 
 his clothes, losing his school-books, and forgetting his les- 
 sons. However, people try to love him," and here Joan, in 
 spite of her wraps and her character of oracle, made a sort 
 of jump towards him which ended in a squeeze "and 
 he does know how to sing. Sing !"
 
 BERTIE, MUCH THE WOBSE FOB NUTS, APPEABED.'
 
 Nan. 69 
 
 Upon this Bertie began and sang quite through a pretty 
 little childish song, in a voice like that of a thrush. Nan 
 thought she could cry over it; but Joan quickly hustled 
 him away, and, throwing off her disguise, said in a very ordi- 
 nary although fatigued voice : 
 
 " Wasn't that fun, Nan ! Now I think you ought to talk 
 about yourself." 
 
 Nan crimsoned, remembering Phyllis's words of warning, 
 yet in the child's heart a sense of honesty arose which pre- 
 dominated over everything else. She said, trying to laugh: 
 
 " It was real fun ; how well you did it, Joan ! Well, I'll 
 tell you. You know I am the daughter of Aunt Letty's 
 nephew, but I've been living for some time with very poor, 
 common kind of people, you would say with my Step-aunt 
 and Uncle Rupert. They keep a butter-and-cheese shop in 
 Brornfield, Connecticut." 
 
 A dismayed group clustered for a moment about her. 
 
 "But you are OUT cousin," exclaimed Joan. 
 
 " Of course" said Nan, holding her head up very high ; 
 "and you are no relation of the Ruperts at all." 
 
 There was silence for an instant. Then Joan said, puck- 
 ering up her nose scornfully, " Oh well, where's the differ- 
 ence? Don't let's bother about it, anyhow." And with 
 her usual energy she proceeded to think of another game. 
 
 " If Laura only chose to do it," she said, looking around
 
 70 Nan. 
 
 the big, fast -darkening attic, "she could tell us a lovely 
 story." 
 
 " Oh, do get her to do it," cried Nan. " Shall I go for 
 her?" 
 
 Joan thought a moment, and then said " Yes" very im- 
 pressively. 
 
 Nan, under the influence of young companionship, had 
 lost all sense of timidity in the large, silent house. She 
 darted down the attic-stairs quickly, and along the upper 
 corridors and down to the parlor where Laura and Phyllis 
 were seated.
 
 Nan. 71 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 WHEN the children went up-stairs, Laura Eolf followed 
 her elder sister into the parlor almost crying. To her way 
 of thinking, Nan was a real little intruder. It was she who 
 hitherto had been old Miss Rolf's favorite, she who had 
 been treated with most deference when she came to the 
 house ; and the idea of this queer,vulgar girl's coming in to 
 usurp her place was unbearable. 
 
 The parlor looked rather gloomy on this rainy May after- 
 noon. Even cheerful Phyllis felt it. While Laura sat sulk- 
 ily in the window, she drew near to the little smouldering 
 fire and tried to divert her mind by reading. It would 
 have been a great comfort to Phyllis had she known just 
 how to help and govern her younger brothers and sisters, 
 but unfortunately her life had been led with no standards 
 for human conduct. Her father was a happy, idle man, who 
 cared only for his own pleasure and comfort, and Phyllis 
 had grown up with no one to say to her, " Do this because 
 it is right. Do not do this because it is wrong" 
 
 She was beautiful and clever and gentle-hearted, but she
 
 72 Nan. 
 
 had never once learned that lesson of bearing and forbear- 
 ing, nor had she seen how necessary to all happiness is the 
 living according to God's golden rule. Her sisters and 
 brothers had been left wholly to her guidance. This was 
 well enough, so far as she thought, while the children were 
 very young; but now they were growing older, beginning 
 to develop instincts and ideas and have purposes of their 
 own. Phyllis would not have admitted it to herself, but 
 sometimes she felt dismayed, having no rock of guidance 
 no place to go and seek the help she needed. 
 
 While Laura sulked in the window, beating her heels 
 against the wainscot and trying to pout as visibly as possi- 
 ble, Phyllis sat down by the fire with a book in her hand, 
 which she could not read. Then Laura began : 
 
 " I do think, Phyllis, this is disgraceful. The idea of 
 Cousin Letty's having to hunt about for some one to be 
 her heiress. I do think it's too mean." 
 
 Laura paused. Phyllis turned her finely cut, sweet face 
 around towards the window, where the rain beat, and where 
 her little sister was sitting, the picture of wrath and ill- 
 temper. 
 
 " And I'm sure we'll all be ashamed of her," Laura went 
 on. " How can we help it ? Eight out of such a set." 
 
 " Laura !" said Phyllis, suddenly standing up. " There 
 was no set, as you call it, about it. This child is your cousin
 
 Nan. 73 
 
 quite as much as she is the niece of those Ruperts, and I 
 think it wicked of you to feel like that I " 
 
 And then the door opened upon Nan herself. She had 
 come down breathless from the attic, and just the sight of 
 Cousin Phyllis's face seemed to cheer her as she came into 
 the room. Laura turned away, resolutely pressing her face 
 against the window-pane. She was determined that, at all 
 events, this interloper should not make friends with her. 
 
 Nan stood still a moment in the doorway. She had on 
 the brown dress Phyllis had bought her, and with dainty 
 lace frills in her neck and sleeves, and with that sweet, kind- 
 ly look upon her face, she looked anything but the vulgar 
 interloper which Laura had considered her. 
 
 " I've come for Cousin Laura," she said, timidly. " Joan 
 says you could tell us such a lovely story if you would. 
 Will you please, Laura ?" 
 
 Phyllis said nothing. Laura turned a very contemptu- 
 ous gaze around upon her unwelcome cousin, but the dark- 
 ening color at her back quite hid her face. Nan saw only 
 the pretty, waving blonde hair, the outline of cheek and 
 chin so like Phyllis's. 
 
 " Will you ?" she repeated. 
 
 " Yes," said Laura. She got up, still very sullenly, and 
 walked towards the door. Phyllis knew she was in a bad 
 temper.
 
 74 
 
 Nan. 
 
 " Laura !" she called out, but the door closed, and whether 
 she heard or not, Laura walked on entirely unmindful of the 
 voice. 
 
 " They are in the attic," said Nan, on the staircase. 
 
 "All right," rejoined Laura. It was all that she would 
 say until the attic was reached. The children greeted her 
 tumultuously, but by this time Kan had begun to feel very 
 uncomfortable; for it was clearly evident that her cousin 
 Laura was quite unlike Phyllis or Joan. Nan felt she 
 might admire her, but could she ever love her ? And Nan, 
 who never before had known the association of cousins 
 whom she felt were well-bred and refined, longed to make 
 herself at once one with these girls. 
 
 When they reached the top of the stairs Laura drew back 
 a moment, but Joan sprang forward, exclaiming, 
 
 " Lollie ! Lollie ! do come and tell us a nice story !" 
 
 Laura frowned. She hung back against the railing of 
 the staircase for a moment before she decided to join the 
 group above. 
 
 Joan evidently valued Laura's capacity for telling stories. 
 She placed an easy-chair and commanded the children to 
 silence, while she motioned Nan imperiously to the next 
 best seat, she herself coddling against Laura's knee. All 
 this seemed to mollify Laura, who looked out upon the lit- 
 tle rain-washed garden below the window, and then said :
 
 Nan. 75 
 
 * I'll tell a new story I've just made up." 
 
 " Um um um," murmured Joan, convulsively clutch- 
 ing Laura's knee. " You see," she added, looking up at 
 Nan, " Laura is perfectly wonderful about stories." 
 
 " Well," began Laura, " there was once a princess " she 
 paused now and then to think it over " who didn't know 
 exactly where she was from ; that is, she knew she was a 
 princess and had a right to a crown, yet she couldn't tell 
 how it was. One day an old fairy appeared to her and 
 said, ' Come home with me ; I am your guardian genie, and 
 I have care of your fortunes.' And so she took her to a 
 wonderful palace all loaded with precious stones and where 
 the princess had everything. She had all she liked, or im- 
 agined she could care for. And so she lived on and on, and 
 the fairy loved her and treated her like her own child. 
 Well, one day she went out for a walk in the by-ways " 
 
 " What are the by-ways ?" interrupted Alfred. 
 
 " By-ways are streets belonging to princesses," said Joan, 
 giving Alfred's foot a push with her own. " Don't in- 
 terrupt." 
 
 "Well, you interrupt, miss," grumbled Alfred. 
 
 Laura went on : " When the princess returned from her 
 walk she found the whole palace changed : the servants and 
 everybody refused to let her in. They said she was a mere 
 nothing" and here Laura curled her lips as disdainfully as
 
 76 Nan. 
 
 possible ; " that the fairy had now a new favorite. This 
 made the princess cry very hard, but she sat down outside 
 the gates, and as every one would come out she asked some- 
 thing about the fairy's new favorite, and she was delighted 
 to hear she was very unhappy. So time went on, and " 
 
 Here Laura's stpry suddenly came to a close, for Miss 
 Eolf s voice was heard below ; and Alfred the Great sprang 
 up, exclaiming : 
 
 " Tea ee ee tea. I know !" 
 
 Laura rose with a very grand air, and Joan said, 
 
 " I didn't feel much interested in that story, any way." 
 
 " Well," said Laura, sharply, " it would have been very 
 interesting, and," she added, with a glance at Kan, " it was 
 about true people" 
 
 Kan stood up with the others, and, catching Laura's 
 meaning glance, she wondered just what it was intended 
 for. Perhaps, she thought, Laura would explain it later. 
 
 Romp as they would, the cousins knew that Miss Rolf 
 expected them to look neat and clean when they came to 
 the table. So they all trooped down to Nan's room, where 
 Laura looked at everything very critically, while the young- 
 er ones washed their hands. Nan came up near to Laura 
 once or twice and tried to make friends pleasantly, but it 
 was generosity wasted. Laura's mind was evidently warped 
 by her jealousy, and little Nan turned for comfort to Joan,
 
 Nan. 77 
 
 who was ready enough with love and friendship, or cousin- 
 ship, to any extent. 
 
 " Nan," Joan whispered, " we'll have to go down and see 
 Cousin Letty first before tea, and we must walk as straight 
 as straight !" 
 
 Joan's face puckered comically as she said this, and Nan 
 answered by a tight hug. The two walked down the stairs 
 arm in arm, and so entered the long, old-fashioned drawing- 
 room where Miss Rolf and Phyllis were seated. 
 
 Nan's little face was beaming; and in spite of her cold- 
 ness old Miss Rolf looked at the child with a pleased air. 
 She liked the smile and the gladness about Nan's mouth 
 and eyes. She put her hand out, drew Nan towards her, 
 and kissed her more tenderly than ever before. Then she 
 turned to Laura, saying, 
 
 " Well, dear, how are you to-day ? Haven't you a word 
 for your old cousin ?" 
 
 Nan had never heard Miss Rolf's voice so gentle, nor had 
 she ever seen her look just as she did at Laura. It was 
 very evident that Laura was her favorite. 
 
 " Oh," said Laura, laughing, " I've plenty to say, Cousin 
 Letty ; but I don't suppose I'm any consequence now !" 
 
 She knelt down by the old lady, who smoothed her fair 
 hair softly, while Nan and the others walked over to the 
 big, low window which overlooked one portion of the gar-
 
 78 Nan. 
 
 dens. An animated though whispered conversation went 
 on. Joan had decided that she would tell Nan what she 
 called the secret, and Alfred tried to rebel against it. 
 
 Meanwhile Nan sat curled up in one end of the window, 
 trying to suppress her desire to laugh, and Joan, kneeling 
 down in front of her and pressing her elbows into Nan's 
 knees, held her thin little face in her hands and looked un- 
 utterable things at Alfred. 
 
 Phyllis glanced from the two figures by the hearth the 
 old lady and pretty, ill-tempered Laura to the group in the 
 window, of which Nan was the centre. Something about 
 that child stirred within the worldly girl's heart a feeling 
 of respect which was not unlike fear. She felt that if only 
 she were a few years older, Nan could be her very dear- 
 est friend. And, after all, between twelve and twenty the 
 years are not so many. Nan possessed what Phyllis knew not 
 of. With all her giddiness, her love of fun, her wild, perhaps 
 disorderly, ways, she had the secret of openness and truth, 
 of that " fearlessness in grace " which only God can give. 
 
 " I will tell," said Joan, in a determined whisper. " Nan, 
 see here : we belong to a society ; it's us all and some of our 
 friends, and early in June you can be inshated." 
 
 " In-itiated," corrected Alfred. 
 
 " Well, whatever you call it," said Joan, with a toss of her 
 head ; " and then it will be great fun !"
 
 AN ANIMATED THOUGH WHISPERED CONVERSATION WENT ON.
 
 79 
 
 Nan's eyes danced. " Oh, won't it !" she exclaimed. " Is 
 it hard to be in initiated ?" 
 
 Joan smiled in a superior manner. " Oh " she looked 
 at Alfred " I should say it was ! But, Nan," she added, 
 quietly, " we won't make it very frightening. At least it 
 has to be some frightening, but we'll do our best." 
 
 The tea-bell interrupted Nan in the answer she was about 
 to make, but all during the meal she thought of the horrors 
 and also of the glory before her. But when would she be 
 allowed to go to College Street ? She determined as soon 
 as possible to ask her aunt whether she might not return 
 her cousins' visit. Somehow Nan began no longer to fear 
 the old lady's kiss. She had seen the look on Miss Eolf's 
 face when she entered the drawing-room, and it comforted 
 her very heart.
 
 80 Nan. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 "THERE!" exclaimed Nan, shutting her exercise - book 
 with a bang. " There, Miss Prior, it is finished !" 
 
 " I should say it was," Miss Prior answered, very calmly. 
 " Look how you have blotted it." 
 
 Nan's countenance fell. Her one idea had been haste, 
 and it was quite true that the exercise, though all written, 
 was blotted heavily. 
 
 " What shall I do ?" she said, grumblingly. 
 
 "Write it over again," rejoined the governess, in her 
 iciest tones. 
 
 " Oh, Miss Prior, I can't ! I shall be too late." 
 
 " You know my rule, Annice," was the answer. " I can 
 never liope to correct you of your giddy, disorderly ways if 
 I once overlook anything. Come : ' La Cigale ayant chante.' " 
 And Miss Prior, without relaxing a muscle of her face, be- 
 gan to dictate the exercise which Kan had just written. 
 
 The room in which Nan and her governess were seated 
 was one which had, half a century before, been Miss Rolf's 
 own school-room. It had been unused so long that every-
 
 Nan. 8 1 
 
 thing looked faded and more old-fashioned even than other 
 parts of the large house. The first time Nan entered it she 
 thought what a lovely place it would be to romp in, for it 
 was so large, and the furniture so scant ; but, under Miss 
 Prior's rule, romping anywhere, Nan discovered, would be 
 considered most unpardonable. A faded Turkey carpet of 
 indefinite reds was on the floor; some old-fashioned maps 
 and charts hung on the walls between the four windows 
 one at each end, two at the side ; there were globes and 
 one or two desks ; a piano of more recent date than the rest 
 of the furniture though rather a " tin pan " at best, Nan 
 thought was between two of the windows, and at one side 
 an elaborate chemical apparatus, which Nan longed to have 
 some day entirely to herself. Nan's desk was in the mid- 
 dle of the room Miss Prior objected to her being near the 
 windows and the governess always occupied a stiff chair 
 near a little table to her right. Now, with all Nan's lack 
 of education, and the vulgarity of her recent surroundings, 
 she dearly loved to see pretty objects about her, to have 
 bright, soft colors in view something to please her eye as 
 well as her heart. And the dreary school-room oppressed 
 her even in this soft May weather; but Miss Prior op- 
 pressed her still more. " That lady," Joan Rolf remarked, 
 "would freeze a canary with a look;" and Nan, for all her 
 high spirits, felt the process of chilling go on very success-
 
 82 Nan. 
 
 fully when she was with her governess. Yet Miss Prior 
 never for an instant suspected that she was not the very 
 wisest and kindest and most comprehensive of Nan's new 
 friends. In person she was rather small, with thin blonde 
 hair, which she wore gathered into the smallest possible 
 knot at the back of her head, light blue eyes, perfectly 
 regular, cold features, the lips as thin as they could be and 
 ever open, the chin decidedly square. Unfortunately for 
 herself, Miss Prior was one of those persons who consider 
 themselves as injured by having to work for her living, and 
 it seemed to her as though she ought always to enforce 
 upon others a sense of her " dignity:" Whenever she did 
 unbend with Nan it was to tell of the comforts and ele- 
 gancies of her life before " poor papa "died, and she never 
 discovered that Nan was by no means impressed either by 
 a sense of her former glory, or any feeling that she was not 
 doing the part of a perfect lady in being a governess. Miss 
 Rolf had engaged her on the strength of the warm recom- 
 mendations of Western friends, and also because she was 
 really highly educated, so far as book-learning went ; but 
 little Nan needed a warmer, finer kind of association. Just 
 then her governess should have been her dearest friend. 
 
 On this morning Nan's haste and her impatience were 
 partially excusable, for she was to pay her first visit to the 
 cousins in College Street at three o'clock ; and Mrs. Heriot
 
 Nan. 83 
 
 would keep her " forever," thought Nan, doing her hair and 
 looking over her dress, and it was already one, and in two 
 minutes, Nan felt sure, the dinner-bell would ring and, 
 there! went another blot. Nan's little brown head bent 
 lower and lower over her writing, while her feelings arose 
 in rebellion. She crooked her elbows out more and more, 
 and received a " fillip " of an exasperating kind from Miss 
 Prior's thimble, and, at last, flurried and nervous, let a tear 
 splash down and mingle with a very blackly written word 
 in a little inky stream. 
 
 " Annice !" exclaimed Miss Prior. She stood up in per- 
 fect horror. 
 
 Nan leaned back in her chair, two more tears gathering 
 under her dark lashes. She felt humble and ashamed, al- 
 though it seemed as if she could not write one other word. 
 
 " You can go away now," said Miss Prior, very icily, " and 
 get ready for dinner but the work must remain where it 
 is; and when you come to your lessons to-morrow, the exer- 
 cise shall be written twice instead of once." 
 
 Nan's penitence vanished ; for here she felt was injustice. 
 How much more would a gentle word, even of rebuke, have 
 done for her! But she was glad to escape. She went away 
 to her room and dried her eyes, listening to the dinner-bell 
 with a sense of relief. 
 
 But as she went down the long staircase, which was flood- 
 
 7
 
 84 Nan. 
 
 ed with May sunlight, a curious feeling of loneliness came 
 over little Nan. She knew that everything money could 
 buy was given her freely, that every one about her meant 
 to be good and kind. But there was something wanting 
 a lack which made Nan's heart swell, and a sob rise invol- 
 untarily to her throat ; what was it ? And why, with all 
 their common ways and vulgar ideas, had she not misseu 
 just this one thing in the Kuperts' household ? She walked 
 slowly across the hall, thinking how much she would give 
 "for one sight of her Cousin Philip's homely, gentle counte- 
 nance, one hour with him on the beach or among his shells 
 and poor little collection of curiosities. Yet it was only 
 one month since she felt herself such a proud heroine of 
 romance ! 
 
 Miss Rolf was waiting for Nan at the head of the dinner- 
 table. Seated behind the glittering silver and glass, dressed, 
 as usual, faultlessly, with her rich old laces and dark silks, 
 the old lady looked to Nan the very concentration of com- 
 fort and luxurious ease. Of course Nan did not define i* 
 in this way to herself ; on the contrary, it made her only 
 feel confused and sad, and long for something, she knew 
 not what. She came into the room timidly, still very near 
 to tears ; and then she saw Miss Rolf look at her with a 
 curious glance, half pity, half affection, altogether something 
 gentler than Nan had ever seen.
 
 Nan. 85 
 
 The old lady put out one of her beautiful white hands, 
 and Kan seemed to know what she meant. She came up 
 very quietly, and laid her own little trembling fingers in it. 
 
 "Nan," Aunt Letty said, "you look sometimes so like 
 your father !" 
 
 Nan's restraint soon gave way at this. It was certainly 
 queer, in the middle of a bright sunshiny day, and just at 
 dinner-time, for no apparent reason, to burst into tears but 
 that is precisely what Nan did. She flung her arms about 
 the old lady's neck and sobbed passionately against the rich 
 brown silk dress, while, what was more singular, Miss Rolf 
 just let her cry away, holding her tenderly and kissing the 
 rough mass of brown hair softly. 
 
 Robert, the butler, luckily did not come in on this scene, 
 for I am afraid he would have thought his mistress had en- 
 tirely lost her senses. To the servants as well as to Nan 
 Miss Rolf was like a queen proud, reserved, and certainly not 
 a person before whom to betray any weakness; but the tender- 
 ness of the arms about Nan was unmistakable. When the 
 little girl lifted up her flushed, tear-stained face, she seemed 
 to feel as if everything danced in a glad light about her, 
 and Miss Rolf had a delicate pink flush on her old cheeks. 
 She looked almost as transformed and as excited as Nan. 
 
 " Dear, dear," she said, very quietly, " by-and-by you'll tell 
 me all about it."
 
 86 Nan. 
 
 She held the little girl's hot head closely, and looked at 
 her with something about her own eyelashes that glistened ; 
 for she was thinking of a day, thirty years ago, when Nan's 
 father had been her idol. No child had ever wept in her 
 arms, or looked as if they wanted to kiss her, since those 
 days, and perhaps the perfectly natural outburst on Nan's 
 part had made her feel what she had lost through pride 
 and self-will. 
 
 "Nannie," the old lady said, earnestly, "I've a long 
 story to tell you some day about your father. Some day I 
 mean you to hear it. Now sit down, my child. There!" 
 added Miss Rolf)?quickly, her old stern look coming back 
 " there is Robert. Robert, you were a long time bringing 
 in the soup. I must make Susan understand promptness 
 better." 
 
 Nan glided into her seat, wondering if Eobert noticed 
 how red her eyes were. But that distinguished person did 
 not betray it if he had. He moved about noiselessly as 
 usual, and attended to Miss R-olf's slightest look with the 
 greatest alacrity.
 
 "MISS ROLF JUST LET HER CRY."
 
 Nan. 87 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 IT had been arranged that Mrs. Heriot was to take Nan 
 down to the Rolfs' in College Street, and my little heroine 
 had to go through her usual worry of mind when that good 
 woman had anything to do for her. Since not only did 
 Mrs. Heriot never, by any chance, hurry but it seemed to 
 be one of her inflexible rules to be late on any such oc- 
 casion. 
 
 Nan, in a pretty new gingham, with her new summer 
 hat and a parasol, was waiting half an hour before Mrs. 
 Heriot came slowly along the hall, looking very warm in a 
 red shawl and a bonnet covered with flowers and feathers. 
 
 Nan could hardly walk down College Street any more 
 composedly than the twins had on their visit. But it was 
 not raining to-day ; the sky was bright and blue, the air 
 delicious, and in the gardens which they passed were all 
 manner of spring blossoms ; the lilacs seemed to nod their 
 heads at Nan over the walls, and the syringas were, she 
 thought, like big, white " day-time " stars. 
 
 Kolf House was at one end of a hilly street, and all along
 
 88 Nan. 
 
 going down towards the seaside part of the town, were fine, 
 old-fashioned houses, with gardens and box-walks, and the 
 look of old-time comfort which one sees in comfortable 
 New England towns. Nan thought she would like to see 
 inside some of the houses she passed, they looked so well 
 kept and contented. Sometimes young faces appeared in 
 the windows, and then Nan always said, " Mrs. Heriot, who 
 lives there?" And Mrs. Heriot would cough significantly, 
 look around, and give the names with bits of their family 
 history. Some of the names impressed Nan very strongly, 
 because of the young people in the windows. In one small, 
 dreary-looking house, she saw the face of a little boy, evi- 
 dently an invalid. He leaned against the window and 
 pulled the tassel of the curtain with a thin, restless hand, 
 while his sad eyes looked out upon the street, seeming to 
 Nan to say how he longed to be there. 
 
 " That is Captain Hand's house," Mrs. Heriot explained, 
 "and that boy is his grandson. He's had spine disease 
 for years." Nan fancied the poor little fellow smiled at her 
 as she looked up with a sweet, compassionate glance. She 
 determined to ask Joan whether she knew him, and if they 
 couldn't try to amuse him. 
 
 Below this long, irregular street lay the business part of 
 the town and the shipping-places; but a river intersected 
 the city and skirted along around back of College Street,
 
 Nan. 89 
 
 and Nan remembered, with a thrill of pleasure, that Joan 
 had talked of a boat all their own ! Nan had a love of out- 
 door sports, which dominated, I fear, even her desire to be 
 practical and well-educated. She had learned to row and 
 to skate and to coast, and even to play ball, during her 
 Bromfield life, and her secret desire at present was for a 
 horse and a dog of her own. Mrs. Heriot took a short 
 turning to the right, where the trees seemed to be closer 
 and the street more countrified ; at its upper end were the 
 colleges large, red, brick buildings, with the shade of many 
 elms. Nan had no interest in them, however ; she wanted 
 to see Cousin Phyllis's home. 
 
 It was a large, though somewhat shabby, frame house, 
 with a wing in which was a long, two-storied balcony. It 
 stood back from the road, and had a wandering garden and 
 lawn in front, and a porch with tall pillars, on which, as 
 Nan and Mrs. Heriot appeared, the tribe of cousins were 
 disporting themselves. Joan was busy on some fishing- 
 lines, an operation which Dicksie was critically regarding, 
 kneeling on the step below her; Alfred and Bertie were 
 marching up and down in a regimental manner; and 
 Laura was working just within the wide open door. The 
 hall ran through the house, with wide doors at either end. 
 Nan saw a big, straggling garden beyond, and had a glimpse 
 of the river. Cousin Phyllis, in a fresh muslin dress and 
 pretty blue ribbons, was standing on the back-steps.
 
 go Nan. 
 
 The cousins greeted Nan tumultuously, except Laura, 
 who, of course, was more dignified in her method of wel- 
 come. Mrs. Heriot went out to speak to Miss Phyllis, and 
 Joan immediately laid hold of Nan. 
 
 " Now !" exclaimed Alfred, " what are we to do ? what 
 would you like to do, Nan ?" 
 
 " Oh, anything" said beaming Nan. 
 
 Joan pondered ; then she said, looking very earnestly at 
 the rest, " Shall we show her the theatre first ?" 
 
 " I suppose so," said Dick. 
 
 And, laying aside her gloves and parasol, Nan gladly al- 
 lowed herself to be taken around the house and down tow- 
 ards the stables. There was here an old, unused carriage- 
 house, and Joan, as they went, explained that their father 
 had allowed them to make use of it for some theatricals 
 they were getting up as a surprise for Phyllis's birthday. 
 It was Joan who did the talking, but here Laura seemed to 
 have been the manager, or organizer, of the enterprise, and 
 she said, rather coldly, to Nan, 
 
 " Don't you want to take one of the parts, Nan ?" 
 
 " Yes, please, if Aunt Letty says I may." 
 
 " Oh !" cried Joan, " can't she be the Captive, Laura ?" 
 And she added quickly, " You see Laura wrote the play all 
 herself, and it's perfectly beautiful!" 
 
 Laura looked rather pleased by this, and she said perhaps
 
 THE "THEATRE."
 
 Nan. 91 
 
 Nan could be the Captive. The carriage -house consisted 
 of one large room, with a sort of framework of a partition 
 at one side, which they intended to curtain, and at the back 
 were two big windows, which with care might be used as 
 exits. Indeed, the amusement to be derived from them 
 seemed to appeal more than anything else to the boys, who 
 immediately began tumbling in and out of them, Alfred's 
 facility for putting his heels in the air coming in most 
 usefully. 
 
 Laura showed Nan how they meant to divide the audi- 
 ence from the stage. It could readily be done " but !" she 
 sighed, " if only Lance were home, he would do it all" 
 
 And, singular to say, at this moment arose a shout from 
 the twins, who were just .outside the door : 
 
 " Lance ! Lance ! here he is !" 
 
 And there was a general scramble towards the house. 
 Sure enough, it was Lance himself, though what had brought 
 him home before vacation no one could imagine ; but there 
 he was striding across the garden, Joan and Dicksie clutch- 
 ing him violently, and Alfred performing his wildest antics 
 near his heels. 
 
 Nan felt as if old Bromfield days had suddenly come 
 back. She saw the store, the streets, Mrs. Grange's house, 
 and the first glimpses of her new life. She drew back, al- 
 most wondering if Lance remembered her ; but there was
 
 92 Nan. 
 
 no doubt in her rnind a moment later, for Lance, with his 
 bright smile and pleasant voice, had come up and grasped 
 her hand affectionately. 
 
 " "Well, how are you, little Nan ?" he said, cheerily, and 
 Nan laughed and dimpled gayly. She made one of the 
 group about him, while Lance told how illness had broken 
 out in the school, and the boys had all suddenly to be dis- 
 missed. 
 
 "Well," remarked Joan, "if it wasn't perfectly killing 
 kind of illness, I must say I'm glad ; and oh, Lance, Lance, 
 Lance ! you're just in time !" 
 
 " There's always something to be in time for with you, 
 Joan," laughed Lance, pinching his little sister's ear softly. 
 "What is it now?" 
 
 " Oh, it's Laura's play," whispered Joan. " It's to be a 
 surprise for Phyl's birthday." 
 
 " Is there a very sanguinary part for me, Lollie ?" said 
 Lance. " Remember the last time I killed every one beau- 
 tifully." 
 
 Laura colored and bit her lip. "If you are going to 
 make fun of it, Lance," she began. 
 
 " But I've no such idea," he said, good-humoredly. " Now 
 when I can get something to eat, I'd like to hear more of 
 it. I feel a raving craving within me." 
 
 Alfred's eyes grew big. " There's a whole row of pies
 
 Nan. 93 
 
 cooling down - stairs," he said, "and doughnuts; I saw 
 them !" 
 
 " And The Great didn't eat any of them ?" 
 
 " Didn't he f" said Joan, with her mouth curled almost 
 out of sight. " He just went for them" 
 
 Lance laughed heartily, and they all turned back to the 
 house, where Mr. Rolf stood waiting to see his son, and 
 Phyllis was bustling about in the dining-room, preparing 
 an impromptu sort of dinner for her favorite brother. 
 
 Nan followed Joan into the dining-room. She was 
 greatly interested in seeing anything about the house, and 
 almost directly the influence of Cousin Phyllis's pretty, 
 dainty taste had reached her. The dining-room was a large 
 one, and full of sunshine and flowers ; it seemed to Nan, 
 and it looked very plainly, the sort of room in which a large, 
 merry family of young people would like to eat their meals. 
 Phyllis might look to Nan a very grand young lady, but 
 she was evidently not above setting the table, and arrang- 
 ing the little dinner which Martha, the house-maid, brought 
 in on a tray ; and between whiles Nan saw her dust one or 
 two places on the sideboard, and put things straight here 
 and there, quite with the air of a person accustomed to per- 
 forming such household duties. 
 
 " Why," pondered Nan, as she stood in one of the win- 
 dows "why had Phyllis seemed so fine a lady in Brom-
 
 94 
 
 Nan. 
 
 field, so anxious to cut Nan adrift from her step-aunt's fam- 
 ily ?" Had the girl been a little older and wiser she would 
 have understood it better, or have been able to make clearer 
 distinctions. Phyllis's one point of intensest pride was 
 family. To her it was everything that she was a Miss 
 Rolf of Beverley. She knew better than the others how 
 many times they had had to pinch and save, and turn here 
 and there to keep up what she called " appearances ;" but, 
 at all events, nothing " vulgar " had ever come near them. 
 Did she, I wonder, think it more honorable to be a " Rolf," 
 and often owe the butcher and the baker, than to have been 
 a plain somebody or nobody, who knew not the dishonor 
 of debt? 
 
 Lance professed himself well satisfied with his dinner, and 
 he sat down between Phyllis and Laura, and talked eager- 
 ly; the younger members of the family sitting on the 
 ledges of the windows and looking on admiringly, Nan 
 close to Joan, who kept up a little whispered murmur about 
 the play. 
 
 By this time Nan knew its plot. It was as follows : A 
 person, called simply a "Knight," takes captive a young 
 person who speaks an unknown tongue. He brings her to 
 his people, among whom is a Magician who alone can un- 
 derstand her. To him she tells her sad history, how she 
 is a princess of the " Gondulfo tribe ;" and, to prove it, she
 
 Nan. 95 
 
 calls upon the magician to light up his lamp, and rub a 
 certain ring she wears, and he can see her family. These 
 personages appear, one after another, at the back of the 
 stage. The Magician recognizes among them his own long- 
 lost nephew, the princess's brother, and as the spirits vanish 
 he cries out, " You are then my niece, Artemisia Gondulfo." 
 She admits that she is ; the Knight appears ; a general un- 
 derstanding follows, and the Magician pours upon Artemi- 
 sia the wealth he has gathered for years, while she marries 
 the Knight, who leads her back to the Gondulfos with re- 
 joicing. 
 
 " Don't you think," whispered Nan, " that perhaps the 
 people will want to know where the princess came from ?" 
 
 Joan looked really troubled. " Now, see here, Nan," she 
 said, as serenely as she could, " I can just see how you are 
 always going to take things : you want them so illiterate ;" 
 Joan stammered, and added, "No, I don't mean exactly 
 that ; I mean literal. Did you ever hear people in a real 
 theatre, for instance, stand up and ask questions ?" 
 
 Nan found she knew of no such occasion ; but she had 
 only twice been in a real theatre. She added : 
 
 "Oh, dear!" said Joan, "I don't mind telling you a 
 secret, Nan : I think, when I'm older, I shall be an actoress" 
 
 " Oh, Joan 1" came from Nan, in a dismayed undertone. 
 
 " Well, I think so" said Joan, looking very grave. And 
 
 8
 
 96 Nan. 
 
 Nan hardly knew whether to be most horrified or awe- 
 struck. 
 
 But just now Joan had other things to think of. While 
 Lance was finishing his dinner, she suggested taking Nan 
 up to the room she shared with Laura ; and the two went 
 out up the stairs to a breezy bedroom, which at once showed 
 that two people with very different tastes or ideas occupied 
 it. One side plainly showed Laura's finical, sentimental 
 sort of fancies; the other Joan's restless, careless, active 
 spirit. There were two little iron beds ; the floor was cov- 
 ered with a bright-flowered carpet, and the walls were full 
 of pictures ; some, it is true, only cuts from illustrated pa- 
 pers, but all well selected. There were dormer windows, 
 and in one a cage with two canaries. Joan displayed her 
 special treasures to Nan, sitting on the floor before an old 
 trunk, in which were some dolls' clothes, some bits of finery 
 saved for theatricals, and which Joan called " properties," 
 and various books and shells, and even some minerals. 
 
 " Oh, Joan !" exclaimed Nan, " I wish you knew Philip !" 
 The sight of the minerals brought back the crowded little 
 parlor in Bromfield, where, perhaps, even now Philip was 
 busy among his precious belongings. 
 
 Joan looked up, her gray eyes widely open. 
 
 " "Who's Philip ?" she said,, in a way Nan would have 
 thought brusque or rough before she knew how loving 
 Joan's heart really was.
 
 Nan. 97 
 
 Nan told her all about Philip, and something of Marian. 
 The two girls decided they would ask Phyllis or Aunt 
 Letty if Nan might not write to Philip. Joan entered 
 very heartily into this idea, and it produced so many puck- 
 erings of her nose and mouth, that finally Nan burst out 
 into an irrepressible laugh. 
 
 " Oh, Joan !" she exclaimed, " you do draw up your face 
 so funnily !" 
 
 "Yes," said good-humored Joan, laughing with Nan, 
 " don't I" She jumped up and went over to the looking- 
 glass, where she scrutinized her thin little face very care- 
 fully. " See here, Nan," she said, turning round, " just see 
 how my flesh hangs." She pulled at her cheeks, and made 
 various other demonstrations of the kind. "Papa says I 
 must fill out, or I'll be so ugly " here Joan made her very 
 worst pucker " that no one will be able to look at me with- 
 out well, nearly fainting away." 
 
 Nan laughed again until the tears streamed down her 
 cheeks. 
 
 " Joan," she said, sobering finally, " I'll promise to love 
 you always." 
 
 But Joan only stood still, shaking her head solemnly. 
 
 " Are yon sure, Nan ?" she answered. 
 
 " Perfectly sure," said Nan ; and upon this Joan dived 
 into her little trunk and produced a small note-book.
 
 98 Nan. 
 
 " Let's write it down," she said, very earnestly ; " What's 
 the day of the month ?" 
 
 Nan said it was May 29th ; so Joan entered the date, and 
 underneath it wrote: "Annice and Joan Kolf this day de- 
 cide to be perfectly true friends. They will never let any- 
 thing separate them." 
 
 " Now," said Joan, " let us each sign it ; but Annice or 
 Nan first we ought to do something a little solemn ; throw 
 beans over our heads, or something like that." 
 
 Nan hesitated, and her face flushed. " Joan," she said, 
 quietly, " I don't think that is half so solemn as as 
 something like a little kind of a prayer." 
 
 Joan looked a trifle puzzled ; " Well," she asserted. 
 
 Nan took her cousin's hand very firmly. 
 
 "Suppose," she said, "we say together God bless 
 this." 
 
 Nan could think of nothing more elaborate ; but the two 
 children, standing, together signed their names to the queer 
 little compact, and then together said not knowing half 
 how solemn it really was "God bless this" 
 
 For a moment or two they did not speak ; but when the 
 tea-bell rang they went down -stairs very merrily on the 
 last flight, indeed, Joan showed Nan how to slide down on 
 the banisters, a performance Alfred and Dicksie greeted 
 with cheers from the porch below.
 
 Nan. 99 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 NAN awoke early the next morning. A stream of light 
 flooded her room ; everything looked bright and inspiring, 
 and the little girl ran down-stairs, gayly humming one of 
 Bertie Rolf's songs. 
 
 It was Saturday; except for the exercises to be rewritten, 
 there would be no work ; and above all reasons for joy was 
 the fact that Lance had promised to come and take Nan and 
 Joan out in his boat. Aunt Letitia's consent was given. 
 Nan needed nothing further, she believed, in the way of 
 enjoyment, since the sun had chosen to shine out so gayly, 
 and she felt so happy since yesterday, when Aunt Letty had 
 folded her in her arms and let her cry imrestrained on her 
 shoulder. 
 
 "Where is Lance going to take you, An nice?" her aunt 
 asked, while they were at breakfast. 
 
 But Nan could not say ; and just then Lance himself ap- 
 peared in a regular flannel boating-suit. 
 
 " But where is Joan ?" Nan asked. 
 
 "She had a cold," said Lance, " and Phyllis wouldn't heat
 
 ioo Nan. 
 
 of her coming." The boy seemed to feel thoroughly at 
 home. He sat down at the end of the table and asked 
 Kobert for a glass of water, while Miss Kolfe offered him a 
 cutlet and some cakes. 
 
 " No, thank you, Cousin Letty," said Lance ; " I've had 
 my breakfast. How soon can Annice be ready ?" 
 
 Nan commenced hurrying every mouthful, until she 
 caught a stern look from her aunt. 
 
 " She can't go for half an hour after breakfast," said the 
 old lady. " Do you think me crazy, Lancelot ? The idea 
 of any one's taking violent exercise directly after eating !" 
 
 This settled it ; although a little defiant look came be- 
 tween Lance's well-marked eyebrows and around the curves 
 of his handsome mouth. Nan felt a trifle afraid that per- 
 haps Lance was high-tempered. Certainly he looked now 
 as though he was not always the laughing idol of the family 
 he had seemed to be yesterday. 
 
 Breakfast was finished at last, and Lance followed Miss 
 Rolf and Nan out into the garden, where the old lady saun- 
 tered about among her rose-bushes, and Nan kept her gaze 
 almost fixed upon the town-clock, the face of which she 
 could see gleaming through the trees. 
 
 Mrs. Heriot appeared at a side door to say a word of wel- 
 come to Lance, whose face brightened visibly, and Nan saw 
 what a favorite he was with this old servant. Then, at last,
 
 Nau. 101 
 
 with what seemed aggravating slowness, the hands of the 
 clock moved around to nine o'clock. The half-hour was over ! 
 Nan gave a little skip, and darted in for her shade-hat and 
 her gloves, and in a few moments more, after many injunc- 
 tions from Aunt Letty, she was, with Lance, going across 
 fields at the back of the house to the river. 
 
 Almost at once Lance said : " Nan, your cousin Philip is 
 at our school." 
 
 " What ?" ejaculated Nan. 
 
 " Yes," said Lance. " He came last week, and I must say 
 he passed very well ; and it's a shame we had to break up 
 so soon." 
 
 " But, Lance," said Nan, with a very serious face, " isn't 
 yours a very expensive school ?" 
 
 "Of course but" Lance shrugged his broad young 
 shoulders " there he is that's all I know." 
 
 Nan remained wonderingly silent, but of course she felt 
 full of delight, well knowing how very much Philip had 
 desired the means of a thorough classical education. 
 "What the Bromfield public school afforded him had never 
 half satisfied the lad's yearnings. But now he could do 
 what he chose ! Nan gave Lance's hand a happy squeeze. 
 
 "I'm so glad," she said, earnestly. Lance nodded, as 
 much as to say he appreciated her feelings, and in a few 
 moments they were by the river-bank, where Lance's boat
 
 iO2 Nan. 
 
 was moored. It was a light little boat, with nice cushions 
 and a fine pair of oars. Lance seated Nan comfortably, and 
 asked her if she knew how to steer, and then they pushed 
 off. The boat was named the Phyllis, and this made Nan 
 say: 
 
 " Lance, isn't Cousin Phyllis very good to you all ? * 
 
 Lance smiled. "I think she is" he said, heartily; 
 " you see mother died when Bertie was only four, and since 
 then Phil has had it all to see to ; she never thinks of her- 
 self!" 
 
 Nan was not entirely of Lance's opinion, but she said 
 presently : 
 
 "Lance, what do you think it means really not to think 
 of yourself?" 
 
 "Not to think of yourself?" Lance looked across the 
 river, while he rowed, with a wondering expression. " Well, 
 Nan," he said, in a moment, "I suppose it means being 
 thoughtful about other people." 
 
 " Well, not only that," said Nan, earnestly ; " it must 
 mean to know and understand yourself, but to care more 
 for other people's happiness." 
 
 Lance pulled one or two very good strokes before he 
 spoke ; then he said, gravely : 
 
 " Yes, Nan, I believe that must be it. You see, you girls 
 have a sort of an easy time of it, but boys always have to
 
 Nan. 103 
 
 rough things, and to do for themselves. I don't know 
 how it is, we never get a real out-and-out chance at being 
 good." 
 
 Nan opened her hazel eyes widely. "Lance," she ex- 
 claimed, " I do think you are wrong ! You can say, if you 
 like, that boys have more to fight out ; but I'm sure girls 
 have things, too, that are just, just as hard ; and, although 
 I'm glad to be a girl, sometimes I feel shut in by it." 
 
 " What would you do if you were a boy, Nan ?" Lance 
 asked, smiling. "Come, now; perhaps you can do it as 
 it is." 
 
 " Well," said Nan, slowly, " I think I'd like to go about 
 among poor, rough boys, for one thing, and help them." 
 
 " And get your head well punched for you." 
 
 " Oh, well, I mean to try and make them know better 
 to be one with them. I feel as if I could do something 
 worth while that way ; but, Lance, I want to confide some- 
 thing to you," added Nan, very seriously. 
 
 "All right I won't tell;" the boy's dark young face 
 softened as he looked at the little girl before him, with her 
 sweet, serious, earnest air. 
 
 " Well, then I'm afraid I'll never be much of a credit 
 to Aunt Letitia as a scholar, Lance. Whatever the reason 
 1<3, 1 don't care for study." 
 
 " But you think you might be worth something else ?"
 
 IO4 Nan. 
 
 " Tes, that is it. Oh, Lance, how kind you are !" said Nan ; 
 " you understand it all so quickly." 
 
 " What do you think of, then, Nan, when you find you 
 don't care for study ? Still, I shouldn't call you downright 
 stupid." 
 
 " Oh, yes !" Nan averred, shaking her head solemnly ; " all 
 the Miss Priors and the Miss Joneses in the world never 
 could make me what Miss Prior calls lyrillicmt. Don't you 
 suppose I know it well enough ? You see at Uncle Rupert's 
 nobody cared; but here I've made so much more of an 
 effort and it's no use; but I think about doing some- 
 thing very busy and very useful. You see, I do understand 
 more about poor people than rich." 
 
 Lance looked at his little cousin with more respect than 
 if she had been construing Yirgil by the page. 
 
 " Nan," he said, leaning forward and speaking impress- 
 ively, "do you stick to that, then. Don't give up your 
 books why should you ? but don't bother your poor little 
 head trying to be brilliant over them. Now, see here, do 
 you want to go and see an old boat-builder I know ?" 
 
 Nan professed herself only too delighted. Lance rowed 
 on. The river ran very wide just here, and Nan many 
 years later remembered just that moment the look of the 
 clearly flowing water, the May sky, Lance's strong young 
 figure, and, above all, the sort of strength the boy's words
 
 Nan. 105 
 
 had given her. She felt more hopeful than she had thought 
 it possible ever to be the day before. 
 
 The boat-builder's workshop was a roomy though rather 
 dilapidated building, near the water's edge, just above a lit- 
 tle bank of tangled greens. He kept a dozen boats for hire, 
 and these were rocking gently near the shore. When Lance 
 pulled up and helped Nan out, the boatman came to the 
 doorway of his workshop and nodded pleasantly. He was 
 a tall, grizzled old man, with a face full of puckers, some of 
 which seemed to have gotten there by laughing. 
 
 " How do you do, Mr. Blake ?" said Lance, pleasantly. 
 " May I bring my little cousin in to see the boat you're 
 building?" 
 
 " Certain, certain," said the old man, and he turned 
 around and led the way into the shop, where a long scull 
 was turned upside down on trestles, and which Lance ex- 
 amined with delight, for he had all a young collegian's 
 enthusiasm for boating. Nan looked on, interested in the 
 conversation which went back and forth rapidly between 
 Lance and the old man. Then she sauntered back to the 
 river door, where she was suddenly attracted by the sight 
 of a very ragged little boy. 
 
 He was a child apparently nine or ten years of age, and 
 his face was pinched and pitiably haggard. He stood very 
 still near Lance's boat, from which he now glanced up tim- 
 idly at Nan in the shop-door.
 
 io6 Nan. 
 
 " Please," he said, in a tired sort of voice, " is there any 
 job about I could get ?" 
 
 " Oh !" said Nan, quickly ; her heart was impulsively full 
 of compassion. She ran down nearer to the little boy, 
 who suddenly turned whiter than before, and staggered 
 against one of the posts of the small pier. 
 
 " Lance !" cried Nan, so eagerly that her cousin darted 
 out, and, with one glance and a "By George!" under his 
 breath, he caught the boy's now fainting figure. 
 
 Mr. Blake was soon with them ; and after they had revived 
 the boy so that he languidly opened his eyes, the boatman 
 said, " It's hunger has done it. Poor little chap, we'll settle 
 that. Come, my lad, can ye get as fur as my house 1" And 
 he jerked his head to the right of the workshop. 
 
 But the poor little fellow only laid his head back wearily 
 against Lance's shoulder, and the latter said, 
 
 " I'll carry him, Blake he's as light as a feather." 
 
 So they made a procession quietly through the workshop 
 and out across a bit of roadway, to where Blake's cosy, 
 old-fashioned white cottage was standing. The box walks 
 smelt pleasantly, and the lilac bushes were in profusion 
 near the door ; but, for all the cool sweetness of things, the 
 poor little boy showed no interest in what was being done 
 for or with him. Lance, followed by Nan, carried the child 
 into the little parlor, the door of which Blake opened
 
 LANCE. FOLLOWED BY NAN, CARRIED THE CHILD."
 
 Nan. 107 
 
 quietly, after which he turned and called down the passage, 
 " Love !" 
 
 " Yes, father," came back in cheery tones from the kitch- 
 en, and a bright-faced, tidy young girl of about fifteen ap- 
 peared. 
 
 Her father made her understand very quickly what had 
 happened, Nan thought for she was up-stairs and down 
 again in a moment with a pillow and a shawl, and helped 
 Lance very skilfully, as he laid the boy on the horse-hair 
 sofa; and in another moment she was back again with a 
 glass of milk, with just a " trifle of wine in it," she said, 
 and a fresh-looking roll, which would have tempted any 
 one. But, half-dead though he was of starvation, it seemed 
 hard for the boy to eat. He swallowed a few mouthfuls, 
 and then closed his eyes exhaustedly. Blake was question- 
 ing him, when his daughter, in her gentle, motherly way, 
 lifted a hand, and said, 
 
 " Not now, father ; wait a little. He must rest first." 
 
 And Nan thought she had never heard a sweeter voice. 
 It was girlish and soft, but it had in it such womanly tones 
 that one wondered at her youth for she was plainly not 
 older than Lance indeed, the curve of her cheek was very 
 childish, and her eyes, though they were quiet, motherly 
 eyes as they looked at the poor boy, had the peculiar sweet- 
 ness and innocence of a child.
 
 io8 Nan. 
 
 " Shall I go for a doctor, Love ?" Blake asked. He seemed 
 to be full of respect for his little maiden. 
 
 " Well, yes, father, perhaps you had better," she said, 
 carefully. 
 
 " I'll go," suggested Lance. 
 
 And then Nan said, almost in Love's ear, " Can I do any- 
 thing?" 
 
 Love nodded. "Yes," she said, "supposing you were 
 not to mind helping me get a better place ready for him." 
 
 Nan looked her pleasure, and Love added, 
 
 " Father, will you sit here ? Now come with me, please." 
 
 Nan liked her gentle authoritative ways very much. She 
 followed the little mistress of the house up-stairs, and into a 
 cool, clean room, evidently kept for company ; for, although 
 the white curtains were fresh in the windows, the bed was 
 only covered over with pink netting. 
 
 " Love," as Nan called her in her mind, took out her keys 
 and opened the drawers of the old-fashioned bureau, from 
 which she took some lavender-scented sheets and pillow- 
 cases and a snowy counterpane, and, with no apologies, she 
 allowed Nan to help her make up the bed. 
 
 " Aren't you Miss Rolf's niece ?" she said, smiling at Nan 
 across the sheet they were tucking in. 
 
 " Yes," said Nan ; " and do you keep house here all alone 
 with your father ? and is your name really Love ?"
 
 Nan. 1 09 
 
 The young girl laughed. " Oh," she said, " that's always 
 been father's name for me. My name is really Margaret. 
 Yes, I keep house for father; mother is an invalid, she 
 never comes down-stairs. There! for a young lady, you 
 did very well." 
 
 Nan was about to say she had done housework for two 
 years past, but checked herself as Margaret Blake ex- 
 claimed : 
 
 " There is the doctor. Young Mr. Rolf was quick." 
 
 The two girls went down-stairs, and found a young doctor 
 bending over the boy, who certainly looked a little better. 
 When Margaret told of her preparations up-stairs, the doc- 
 tor said he had better have a warm bath and be put to 
 bed ; " that is," he w r as beginning, " if 
 
 " Oh, yes," said Love, cheerily, " of course we'll keep him 
 here awhile, any way." 
 
 Half an hour later the languid little figure was lying 
 comfortably in the sweet-smelling bed up-stairs, and his new 
 friends had been able to learn something of his history. 
 
 He had come, he said, with his mother a long way they 
 had walked it nearly all. Since father had died, and 
 mother had been so ill, they had nearly starved; but they 
 had come here to see the manager of the Beverley theatre, 
 hoping mother could get something to do. 
 
 " Had she been on the stage ?" the doctor asked.
 
 no Nan. 
 
 "Oh, yes," the boy said, "and she heard the manager 
 here had known father." 
 
 " And where is she now, my boy ?" 
 
 " Oh, she's down at the theatre, sir, waiting to see Mr. 
 Burton. There's a matinee going on. I just came along 
 the river to see if I couldn't get an odd job." 
 
 Nan listened with growing fascination. What would 
 Joan say to this ! and how more than ever awe-struck was 
 she when the doctor said : 
 
 " Then I'll go down to the theatre and find her. And, 
 Lance," he added, " will you come ? I may need you." 
 
 Lance was almost as delighted by the novelty of the idea 
 as Nan had been ; for, like all young people, a theatre, and, 
 above all, " behind the scenes," seemed to him the most fasci- 
 nating and mysterious of all places. He needed no second 
 bidding, and, promising Nan that he would send word of 
 her whereabouts to Aunt Letitia, they started off. 
 
 Meanwhile, Nan sat by the boy's bedside, while " Love " 
 went down-stairs to the performance of some household 
 duties. 
 
 Nan looked at the little white sleeping face, wondering 
 what he could tell of that vaguely mysterious and wholly 
 delightful place the theatre.
 
 Nan. 1 1 1 
 
 CHAPTER XYIL 
 
 ALL his life long Lance thought he would remember 
 that morning's expedition. Dr. Rogers knew his way per- 
 fectly to the Beverley Opera House stage-entrance, having 
 more than once been called in in sudden cases of illness; 
 but Lance wondered how he could take the visit in such a 
 very cool sort of way. 
 
 " I suppose you never before went behind the scenes of 
 a theatre," he said, looking at Lance's eager young face. 
 
 " No, sir," Lance said, " I don't suppose my father would 
 object to my going now with you." 
 
 " I'll make that all right," the doctor said. And Lance, 
 feeling his only misgiving removed, went on full of sup- 
 pressed excitement. 
 
 Dr. Rogers had known many people in what is always 
 called " the profession ;" but to Lance it seemed, from 
 what he told him, as though he knew chiefly the sad and 
 toilsome sides of their lives. The hard work both of 
 appearing gay when most weary, and of being morning, 
 noon, and night either rehearsing or acting, or hanging
 
 112 Nan. 
 
 about managers' or treasurers' offices, or doleful green- 
 rooms. Now, to Lance, a " green - room " meant such a 
 place as he had seen described in lives of Garrick or Gold- 
 smith ; where the great beaux and wits of the day gathered, 
 and where the sparkle of gems, the clinking of glasses, and 
 the gayety of voices aided a brilliant scene. 
 
 " This way," Dr. Kogers said, as they turned down a little 
 side alley at one side of the theatre. Outside were flaring 
 placards of the " Great Spectacular Drama," being performed 
 with one hundred dancers, some real horses, and a chariot 
 all splendors which he would fain have witnessed from the 
 front of the house ; but while Mr. Rolf encouraged his boy 
 to see first-class theatrical representations, he would have 
 forbidden his attending this lower order of vulgar display, 
 and Lance led too frank a life to do in secret what he knew 
 his father and Phyllis would condemn. 
 
 Some warehouses were at one side, and, wedged in be- 
 tween them, Lance saw a narrow doorway with a flight of 
 steps leading underground ; above the door "was written in 
 half -legible characters, " Stage En trance. N o Admittance" 
 The doctor, however, pushed on, descending the stairs fol- 
 lowed by Lance. A rough-looking lad was standing at the 
 foot of the steps, evidently on guard ; but the doctor simply 
 said, "All right," and passed on, with Lance close beside 
 him. They groped their way along a dark passage, to the
 
 Nan. 1 1 3 
 
 left of which was a flight of rickety steps, and up these 
 they hurried, Lance wondering how soon the air would feel 
 anything but damp and draughty. Below he had remarked 
 various pieces of stage carpentry, and Dr. Rogers explained 
 to him that it was there much of the necessary stage work 
 was executed. 
 
 At the top of the stairs they found themselves in a laby- 
 rinth of side-scenes, beams, and pulleys all the mechanical 
 part of the Grand Spectacular Drama about to be per- 
 formed. Men were running here and there; from high up 
 in what looked like scaffoldings Lance could hear voices 
 the stage-carpenter calling out this and that direction with 
 various strong expressions while already, in the narrow 
 spaces behind the scenes, the actors and actresses were 
 beginning to move about. There was some gaslight, but 
 usually a cold stream of daylight fell in upon the painted 
 faces and tawdry-looking costumes, which would soon have 
 the aid of the footlights and the illusions of a happy coun- 
 try audience. But here everything looked what it really 
 was ; and oh, in spite of paint and powder, how weary some 
 of the faces looked ! A group of young girls, thinly dressed, 
 were gathered together near one of the side -scenes, and 
 Lance overheard them discussing whether they would have 
 much to pay in fines out of their salaries that night. One 
 girl, who, singular to say, was occupied in darning stock-
 
 114 Nan. 
 
 ings, declared if she were to be fined again for being " just 
 one minute late," she couldn't stand it. "I'll starve next," 
 she said, with a sad laugh. 
 
 " Do you know where Mr. Burton is ?" the doctor asked 
 of one of these young people. 
 
 " Yes, sir," she answered, very politely ; " I think he's in 
 the green-room." 
 
 The word green-room sent a thrill of delight to Lance's 
 heart, and Dr. Rogers led the way directly across the stage, 
 where already a fairy scene was set ; but Lance could not 
 help a feeling of surprise and disappointment as he found 
 himself passing pasteboard trees, and a grotto made up of 
 the queerest odds and ends; while at one side the most 
 coarsely painted stream trickled over painted rocks. But 
 the green - room was ahead of him. Dr. Rogers made his 
 way into a small, scantily furnished room, bare and com- 
 pletely dismal. Here were gathered two or three people 
 in costumes of a somewhat better description than the 
 girls they had seen grouped together. One young man 
 was putting some additional touches to his eyebrows at a 
 cracked mirror, and a stout, elaborately dressed lady was 
 talking earnestly to the manager. Only a few chairs and 
 a table of the roughest description furnished what Lance 
 had to believe was actually a green - room ! His illusions 
 were certainly gone, but he was glad to have seen it, at all
 
 Nan. 115 
 
 events, and he began now to think more earnestly of their 
 errand. 
 
 Dr. Rogers courteously explained to Mr. Burton that he 
 had come to inquire the whereabouts of a woman named 
 Travers. At this, one of the company near the door said, 
 " Oh, Travers is in my dressing-room. Do you want to see 
 her?" 
 
 " I'm sure I'm very sorry for her," said Mr. Burton, well 
 knowing that Dr. Rogers' s errand was charity ; " and I've 
 taken her on with us a few weeks as dresser; but I'm 
 afraid she won't hold out. She's a pretty sick woman." 
 
 The lady who had spoken said, " Will you come and see 
 her, sir 2" 
 
 Mr. Burton seemed very busy, and Dr. Rogers followed 
 the good-humored actress, who was glittering with spangles 
 and paste jewelry, up a rickety staircase to a little box of a 
 room, noisy and ill-ventilated. 
 
 On a half-broken-down chair there sat a thin, hollow-eyed 
 woman, who apparently felt too listless to move ; scarcely 
 looking up when the actress said, kindly, " Mollie, here's a 
 doctor, who says he has the boy." 
 
 At this she brightened, and, on hearing what had oc- 
 curred at Mr. Blake's, she expressed a desire to go at once 
 to the child ; but as she rose it was only too evident that 
 her strength would not admit of her walking one block,
 
 n6 Nan. 
 
 and so the kind-hearted doctor whispered to Lance, " Sup- 
 pose you get a hack, my boy, from the depot ; and here, a 
 little port wine wouldn't hurt her." 
 
 " Oh, sir," said the actress, " we gave her all the dinner 
 she'd take ; and I'm sure we'd all do anything we could for 
 her. She was with our company six months before Travers 
 died. But I'm sure, as a physician, you can tell she's not 
 fit for work." 
 
 Lance threaded his way out into the street, and soon re- 
 turned to say the hack was waiting. They assisted poor 
 Mrs. Travers out into it, several of the company taking a 
 kindly interest in the poor creature's departure. As they 
 left, Lance could hear the orchestra playing gayly, and the 
 voice of the stage -manager calling to the dancers, "This 
 way, my dears ; hurry up ; no nonsense now !" 
 
 And as he looked at the pale, haggard face of Mrs. Trav- 
 ers, he wondered how she had thought of renewing a life 
 in which, it already seemed to him, there could be nothing 
 but weariness and pain.
 
 THE DOCTOR AND LANCE FIND MRS. TRAVER8.
 
 Nan. 117 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 NAN'S brain worked very busily with schemes for the 
 Travers' future, while she sat by little David's bedside. 
 She determined to do all Aunt Letty would allow her to 
 for the boy, whom she felt as if she had " found," and she 
 thought it seemed almost in answer to the talk she and 
 Lance had had in the boat that very morning. 
 
 While her mind was working with a dozen highly colored 
 fancies for the future, she heard the sound of wheels out- 
 side the little garden, and, stealing to the window, saw, to 
 her great joy, the Rolf House carriage, from which Aunt 
 Letitia herself was descending. 
 
 Nan fairly held her breath while she heard Miss Rolf 
 speaking below to Love, and then came the rustle of silk along 
 the little corridor, and Miss Rolf gently entered the room. 
 
 Nan started forward, catching her aunt's hand and look- 
 ing up with beaming eyes at her. 
 
 " Oh, Aunt Letty," she whispered, " how glad I am you 
 came !" 
 
 " I wanted my own little runaway," said Miss Rolf, smil-
 
 1 1 8 Nan. 
 
 ing good-hum oredly ; " and, Nan, tell me more about this 
 poor little boy." So Nan repeated the story, and then, 
 while she stood in the window by her aunt, she begged that 
 he and his mother might be provided for. 
 
 "If you'd let me, aunt my pocket-money," faltered 
 Kan, who had been just two weeks in receipt of an allow- 
 ance of half a dollar. 
 
 Miss Rolf smiled. She remained thinking a moment, 
 and then said, very gently : " I'll see that he is cared for, 
 Kan, and then if it turns out well I'll speak to you of 
 a plan I have." 
 
 Kan pressed her aunt's hand warmly; and as Margaret 
 came up now, Miss Rolf turned to her and asked if it would 
 be quite convenient to her father and herself to let the poor 
 wanderers ~board there a week or two. Margaret said she 
 was sure of it; and a querulous voice across the hall calling 
 her name, she added in an undertone, " Perhaps, Miss Rolf, 
 you wouldn't mind speaking to mother about it ?" 
 
 And Miss Rolf, who thoroughly understood Mrs. Blake's 
 caprices, went across the hall into the room where the in- 
 valid sat in an easy-chair, every comfort about her that the 
 hard work and the tenderness of her husband and child conld 
 procure. But Mrs. Blake, as somebody said, would be one 
 to complain that her heavenly crown was uncomfortable, so 
 completely dissatisfied was she with everything. Miss Rolf, 
 however, was in her eyes the one human being she could
 
 Nan. 1 1 9 
 
 submit to. When she was a young girl she had known the 
 old lady, who had procured for her her place as district 
 school-teacher, from which she felt she "descended" to marry 
 honest Joel Blake. It was easy for Miss Kolf to make Mrs. 
 Blake consent to the Travers' boarding there until she, Miss 
 Rolf, decided what permanent home could be found ; and, 
 while they were discussing it, Lance returned to say that the 
 doctor had been obliged to take poor Mrs. Travers to the 
 Cottage Hospital he superintended, and which was largely 
 under Miss Rolfs patronage. The poor woman was cer- 
 tainly very ill. So only little David was to be left on Mar- 
 garet's willing hands. Miss Rolf departed, promising to 
 send Mrs. Heriot over directly to see what Margaret needed, 
 and, leaving his boat in Blake's charge, Lance drove home 
 with Nan and his Cousin Letty. 
 
 The morning had been to Nan full of excitement, but the 
 afternoon was to contain even a greater amount. Nan knew 
 that her aunt was very thoughtful, and when she sent word 
 at four o'clock asking Dr. Rogers to call at Rolf House to 
 take tea, something in the way she spoke of it to Nan im- 
 pressed the little girl as though plans were being made in 
 which she was concerned ; and after tea the mystery was 
 solved. Nan and Lance were in the drawing-room, the lat- 
 ter eagerly relating his experience at the theatre, when they 
 heard Dr. Rogers leaving the house, and in a moment Nan 
 was sent for to the black-walnut parlor.
 
 1 20 Nan. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 IT was still daylight, and as Nan entered the parlor she 
 saw Miss Rolf seated in one of the windows before her 
 writing-table, and on it were strewn some papers, evidently 
 recently in use. 
 
 Never had Aunt Letty's voice been kinder than when she 
 said, " Come over here, Annice, and sit down. I want to 
 tell you my plan." 
 
 So Nan did as she was told, and then Aunt Letty, after a 
 little fumbling among her papers, said : " I told you I had a 
 plan ; but I wanted to discuss the wisdom of it with Dr. 
 Rogers before I spoke of it to you." 
 
 " Yes, aunt," said Nan, with her eyes fixed on Miss Rolf's 
 face. 
 
 " It is this, then, my dear. If if I see fit to leave you in 
 my will any large sum of money, you must know that the 
 use of it is a great a great responsibility. Money is not 
 given us just for ourselves, Annice. "We owe our use of it 
 not only to God, who let us have it, but to those who have 
 daily need of it. I should suffer greatly if I thought I was
 
 Nan. 121 
 
 the means of your misusing any money I might leave you. 
 I would rather see you work hard for your daily bread than 
 have to sin by ill-using any fortune. I wear rich clothes, 
 but these I always care for, and you do not know how little 
 I really spend ; but were I to buy simply for the sake of 
 decking my person I should call it a misuse of the money 
 God has seen fit to let me have. Nothing is more odious 
 than a pompous, a purse-proud, or a miserly rich person." 
 Aunt Letty broke off here with a smile. " I must not make 
 my sermon too long, dear. I wanted first to make you feel 
 the importance of the trust I am going to give you. Now, 
 then " 
 
 Nan's whole heart shone in her face she felt impressed 
 excited yet bewildered. 
 
 " Now I have thought," said Miss Rolf, " for some time, 
 of making you give away certain sums in charity, and it oc- 
 curred to me to-day that a very good plan would be for you 
 to have, in a certain way, the charge of this poor mother and 
 her child." 
 
 "Oh!" ejaculated Nan. 
 
 "I would not give you the money outright to spend for 
 them, for you are too young for that ; but at certain stores in 
 town you could have credit, and, while I would superintend 
 everything, you would buy everything for them. "What I 
 would exact from you would be a strictly kept account-book.
 
 122 
 
 Nan. 
 
 My bills would come in once in six months, but you would 
 have to show me your book every week or month." 
 
 Nan's eyes nearly danced out of her head. 
 
 " Of course, if I found you were too young for this," Miss 
 Kolf continued, "it could be given up any time; but Miss 
 Prior assures me your strongest point is for figures, and you 
 can at once learn regularly keeping accounts. Then I shall 
 expect you to think out plans for your people, and we will 
 talk them over." 
 
 But as to talking now! it seemed to Nan absolutely im- 
 possible. She could find neither words nor thoughts which 
 seemed coherent, only within her heart was something like 
 a quiet prayer that nearly ended in sobs. 
 
 When Miss Kolf had discussed her plan with Dr. Rogers, 
 she had said : " I feel sure I am right about this child. She 
 has a real vocation for good works, and this discipline will 
 steady her, while the work will please her thoroughly." 
 
 And Dr. Rogers had agreed with Miss Rolf fully. 
 
 Lance was summoned soon after, and Miss Rolf and he 
 and Nan talked over a good plan for comforting the wan- 
 derers. I say talked but it was Nan who only listened 
 with glistening eyes and a beating heart. How she longed 
 to confide in Joan ! It seemed an eternity to wait to see 
 her, but it would not do, she felt sure, to indulge impatience 
 of this sort just at the very outset.
 
 Nan. 123 
 
 Early the next morning Phyllis came over, by Miss 
 Rolf's request, to continue the fascinating discussion. It 
 was evident that she scarcely believed Nan old enough for 
 such a responsibility, but of course, as Miss Eolf said, that 
 could so easily be taken from her that it was assuredly worth 
 the trial. 
 
 Miss Rolf's idea was that a cottage could be taken for Mrs. 
 Travers, and that David could go to school in the morn- 
 ings and work at Rolf House in the afternoons. Miss Rolf 
 had no idea of bringing the boy up to idleness. Should he 
 ever show any special talent for one of the higher profes- 
 sions, that could be developed later, or even if he showed 
 talent for classical study, time could be given him for such. 
 
 Driving to church, Nan looked eagerly at every possible 
 cottage ; but it was not until some days later when Mrs. 
 Travers was decidedly better, and David quite well enough 
 to sit up nearly all day, that the cottage was found. One 
 morning Dr. Rogers came into Rolf House, saying : 
 
 " Well, Nan, I've just what will suit you, I think, in the 
 way of a cottage." 
 
 Nan blushed and smiled. 
 
 " May I take her with me, Miss Rolf ?" the good doctor 
 went on. And, Miss Rolf assenting readily, Nan was soon 
 in the doctor's gig, driving along the river road near to Mr. 
 
 Blake's. 
 
 10
 
 1 24 Nan. 
 
 He explained that he had come upon a widow who, with 
 her daughter, occupied a very comfortable cottage so much 
 too large for their requirements that they were very willing 
 to let one half of it to Nan for Mrs. Travers. As Mrs. 
 Travers must always be an invalid, it would be better for 
 her to have some one else in the house with her while 
 David was so young. 
 
 " I had thought of that, doctor," said Nan, shyly. 
 
 " Ho, ho !" laughed the doctor, " so you really can think, 
 puss. That's a good beginning." 
 
 Nan would have been much better pleased had Lance and 
 Joan been with her, still she certainly enjoyed the expe- 
 dition. The cottage stood in a little garden of its own, and 
 there was nice pasture for a cow, and Mrs. Holt, the occu- 
 pant, was very well pleased to show the doctor and Nan the 
 rooms she designed to let. There were three a sitting- 
 room, quite comfortably furnished, and a small and a large 
 bedroom, and Mrs. Holt was willing to undertake Mrs. 
 Travers's cooking. Everything looked bright and cheerful, 
 and four dollars a week for the rooms did not seem too 
 much ; but Nan hesitated ought she to make the bargain 
 then and there? She glanced at the doctor, but he said 
 nothing until she whispered the inquiry ; then he said : 
 
 " You didn't ask about her charges for cooking. Better 
 have Mrs. Travers send in her own food."
 
 Nan. 125 
 
 Nan felt, foolishly, as though this had been a great over- 
 sight on her part ; but she soon arranged to pay fifty cents 
 more a week for the cooking, and then the doctor handed 
 her a little note-book, in which she was to enter these nego- 
 tiations. 
 
 Nan had a sort of feeling that Phyllis would not like the 
 rooms. The little parlor was certainly very gaudy and its 
 ornaments cheap-looking; but she reflected perhaps they 
 might change that before Mrs. Travers took possession. She 
 would ask Phyllis's advice.
 
 126 Nan. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 JOAN stood outside of the school -room door in Eolf 
 House, knocking very timidly. It was half -past three 
 lessons must be over; but then, thought Joan, with a little 
 screw to her nose, that Miss Prior would probably keep 
 Nan until the very last possible minute ! 
 
 " Come in," a cold voice said, and Joan opened the door, 
 looking in on the large, bare room, with Nan in its centre, 
 and Miss Prior, with her head bound up from toothache, 
 listening to her arithmetic. 
 
 Things were going better just at this moment, for Nan 
 had quite a genius for figures, and Miss Prior enjoyed any- 
 thing mathematical. The lesson was just over. Miss Prior 
 was glad to go home and take care of her suffering face, 
 and so Joan soon found herself alone with her cousin. 
 
 " Well, Nan !" she exclaimed, " Cousin Letty thinks it 
 best for Laura to go out with us when you buy the things. 
 That, I suppose, is to keep me in order." 
 
 Joan grimaced and laughed, and Nan said, quickly, 
 
 " Well, let's not mind, Joan. Do you know, I fancy 
 Laura hasn't much real pleasure."
 
 Nan. 127 
 
 Joan, who had seated herself in the window, looked 
 around with a laugh. 
 
 " Oh yes, she has, Nan," she said ; " she is always with 
 those Phillipses we go to school with, and the Tempests ; 
 and they have all the fun they want. And she considers 
 herself now quite a young lady." 
 
 " She is only fourteen," said Nan. 
 
 " Well, she feels two hundred and four," said Joan. 
 " Come, Nan, tell me what you're going to buy." 
 
 Nan was, on this eventful morning, starting out to make 
 her first purchases, as it were, on her own account. She 
 was to buy clothes for David, some dresses and other things 
 for Mrs. Travers, and various minor comforts for the house- 
 hold and their personal needs. Miss Rolf preferred leaving 
 her entirely to herself in these matters for one week. After 
 that, when the first accounts were presented, she decided 
 that she could judge of Nan's fitness for her new responsi- 
 bility. The old lady had notified various merchants in 
 town that her niece was to be given credit, and so every- 
 thing was in train. 
 
 Nan hardly liked to confess even to Joan her sense of 
 importance and excitement, as she started out in the big 
 family carriage with Laura and Joan, and Mrs. Heriot, who 
 had come in a way to matronize the youthful party. Joan 
 busied her dark head over Nan's list, calling upon her every
 
 1 28 Nan. 
 
 now and then to decipher figures or writing. In the gen- 
 erosity of her nature she felt no jealousy of Nan's posi- 
 tion only a pleasurable sense of her cousin's importance. 
 Laura liked the excitement of it, but, although impressed 
 by Nan's new power, was inclined to be supercilious. She 
 smiled upon Joan's little enthusiasms, and looked at Nan 
 very patronizingly. 
 
 They stopped first before Messrs. Ames & Ames's large 
 dry-goods store, and there Nan was reminded of her first 
 purchases with Cousin Phyllis. How long ago it seemed, 
 and how little she had then thought to be so soon in such a 
 position herself 1 
 
 Two nice suits for David were bought, and various 
 minor articles, and then Mrs. Travers's dresses had to be 
 chosen. Here Laura became decisive in her opinions, and 
 Mrs. Heriot gave some sound advice; while Nan's fancy 
 wavered between a green camel' s-hair and a nice dark linen, 
 and a light-brown wool and a gayer calico. The former 
 were chosen, at last, and their etceteras ; and then it was 
 that the clerk asked the address, and Laura, whose spirits 
 had perceptibly risen, leaned forward over Nan's shoulder, 
 saying, 
 
 " Miss Eolf said, I believe, it was all to be charged." 
 
 " Oh, certainly, miss, certainly !" rejoined the clerk ; and 
 Laura looked well satisfied.
 
 Nan. 129 
 
 Now Nan felt, for a moment or two, a rush of indigna- 
 tion. Why couldn't Laura have left her alone? But sud- 
 denly the thought came into her mind was this all done 
 for her pleasure, or to discipline and help her to help oth- 
 ers? This brought peace. Nan was able to move to the 
 next department, and bring herself to ask Laura's advice in 
 a gentle voice. 
 
 Miss Rolf had suggested buying some books, and at 
 Ames's were two well-stocked counters, from which Laura 
 was asked to select one or two nice volumes of history, and 
 the same of romance and poetry. Laura's taste, like Phyl- 
 lis's, was good ; and the books, if a trifle sentimental, were 
 well chosen. The carriage was loaded with parcels, and 
 then the girls drove to Margaret Blake's. 
 
 Miss Eolf had desired Nan to choose little Love a silk 
 dress an article such as she had certainly never dreamed 
 of possessing and Nan had been delighted by the idea. 
 She chose a pretty dark-brown silk, but Laura said Margaret 
 would like a trimming of lighter silk ; yet Nan remembered 
 Love's quiet eyes, the sober, happy little face she could 
 not think of her in anything but pretty and simple gowns. 
 
 " I don't think, Laura," she said, gently, " that Love would 
 like a; -fashionable kind of a dress ; she wants something 
 just nice /" 
 
 So Laura had laughed and turned away; and the re-
 
 1 30 Nan. 
 
 suit was that Nan had chosen the plain, pretty, brown 
 silk. 
 
 As they drove down the river road towards the Blakes, 
 Mrs. Heriot began to tell how David had spoken the night 
 she had gone to ask what he needed. Mrs. Heriot, by this 
 time, was Nan's stanch friend and who could help being? 
 Brilliant she never would be ; yet every one who came near 
 the child felt the loving tenderness of her heart her eyes 
 would look around at you, full of a liquid softness which 
 had an appealing something in it which no one could resist. 
 
 Of course, of this party Nan was really prime mover; 
 yet she remembered her aunt's words. If money were 
 given her, she must not think of it as a means of making 
 herself or any one else fine or grand or pompous ; it was 
 just to help those who lacked it. 
 
 Nan leaned back in the carriage, happy and excited, and 
 no doubt feeling rather important; yet something of the 
 sermon she had heard on Sunday ran in her mind. She 
 could not have given the text, but the words pointed to a 
 spirit of humbleness when happy things seemed to come sud- 
 denly. Poor little Nan ! Hers had been a hard life, and she 
 was scarcely fourteen ; and, judged by the standard of Cous- 
 in Phyllis or Laura, or Miss Prior, she was not " brilliant" 
 Yet in her heart was a steadfast longing to do whatever 
 God had meant she should. Nan was a child, she could not
 
 Nan. 131 
 
 tell what she ought to do ; but yet heart and soul and mean- 
 ing were all pure. If she had ever cherished a personal 
 dislike, it was towards her cousin Laura Rolf; but before 
 the drive had brought them to the Blakes' door, she forced 
 herself to look at Laura and say, gently, " Are you tired ? 
 Thank you for helping me." There was a real sense of 
 comfort in feeling that she had so far conquered herself.
 
 Nan. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 MARGARET BLAKE was in the garden with little David 
 when the happy party arrived ; and he, who had already 
 grown well acquainted with Nan, hurried forward with 
 beaming eyes to open the gate for her. Then they all 
 went into the parlor, where Love's dress was duly inspect- 
 ed, and David's heart delighted by a game Nan had bought 
 for him. Margaret could not say enough to express her 
 pleasure and gratification, arid discussed with Mrs. Heriot 
 how and where the dress had better be made. David was 
 almost as interested in Love's present as she was herself; 
 and, while they all stood talking, Mr. Blake appeared. 
 
 "Father," Love exclaimed, "just come and look!" She 
 held up the pretty dark silk in a most fascinating fold. 
 Laura was near her. 
 
 " Oh !" said Love, turning around with a pretty smile, 
 " how well it lo.oks with Miss Laura's hair !" 
 
 Poor Laura ! vanity was her very weakest point ; and as 
 Margaret Blake shook out the brown silk near to her pretty 
 blonde hair, she turned towards the glass with a most self-
 
 Nan. 133 
 
 satisfied expression. It might have grown more compla- 
 cent had not the mirror also reflected Joan, grimacing, and 
 Nan's simple young face looking at Laura's very gravely. 
 
 " Nonsense, Margaret !" she exclaimed, coloring ; but she 
 thought how hard it was she could not always have what 
 Jane Phillips had, for instance becoming and stylish dress. 
 Laura's standards were regulated by a few very overdressed 
 young people at the Beverley Academy. 
 
 When the party drove home, Nan's eager eyes saw Aunt 
 Letty in the side-window of the walnut parlor. A smile 
 that made Nan happy passed between her aunt and herself ; 
 and when she had fervently hugged Joan and bidden Laura 
 a pleasant good-night, she and Mrs. Heriot went into the 
 house, Nan dancing with anxiety to tell her aunt every- 
 thing. 
 
 For just in those few days a close understanding had 
 grown up between the old lady and the child. Nan felt 
 like a new being from the lonely little girl who had one 
 day, two weeks ago, walked down the staircase wishing her- 
 self in Bromfield. Her aunt's heart had opened to her, and 
 she found love enough in it to satisfy her own. She well 
 knew that in the test she was going through scrupulous 
 exactness was all that would fill her aunt's sense of success ; 
 but then she decided she would be careful in every way. 
 
 After tea Miss Rolf and Nan went into the parlor, and
 
 134 Nan. 
 
 there on the writing-table lay two books, bound in Russia 
 leather, and with " Annice Rolf " printed in gold letters on 
 the covers. 
 
 " You see," said Aunt Letty, " one is to be for your ac- 
 counts, the other for a sort of note-book in which you can 
 enter anything you think the Traverses will need." 
 
 Nan was delighted, and Aunt Letty said she would leave 
 her alone a little while that she might enter in her account- 
 book the expenditures of the day. 
 
 Nan sat down in the window overlooking the terrace, 
 and prepared her accounts carefully. Yet I am afraid this 
 first page was rather wild in appearance. So far as figures 
 and items read it was correct, and stood thus : 
 
 2 dresses for Mrs. Travers 14 50 
 
 There were two soots of clothes for David, and they were 9 00 
 
 4 collars 30 
 
 2 shirts 2 00 
 
 10 yards of unbleeched muzlin 80 
 
 A dark skirt 75 
 
 game and books 8 
 
 35 35 
 
 Nan summed up her badly-spelled account, and wondered 
 if Aunt Letty would think it too much to have spent. She 
 wished Lance were there to help her decision as well as her
 
 Nan. 135 
 
 figures ; and she sat looking out of the window, biting the 
 end of her pen, and wondering if she really could manage 
 these business matters successfully. But, she reflected, if 
 she only could, what a useful life she might lead. Aunt 
 Letty would give her money, she felt sure, for every useful 
 enterprise ; and Nan was made, as her aunt nicely said, to 
 be a " helper."
 
 1 36 Nan. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 THE day that Mrs. Travers and David were to be installed 
 in their new home was one of intense excitement for all 
 the young Rolfs. Mrs. Travers had been visited by various 
 members of the theatrical company, one of whom the lady 
 in whose dressing-room Dr. Rogers had found the sick wom- 
 an had called at Rolf House to express her gratification and 
 offer a little purse made up among the company. 
 
 Nan went with her aunt into the black-walnut parlor to 
 see this lady a genuine actress! and off the stage! Nan 
 knew none of the differences in companies or performances, 
 nor that the people playing "The Silver Grotto, or the 
 Naiads' Ring," at the Beverley Opera House, were of the 
 poor, struggling, and hard -worked kind who thought it 
 luxury to have twenty dollars a week and their costumes 
 "found." 
 
 Mrs. Landor known on the bills as "Miss Blanche 
 Blake " was sitting in the western window of the parlor, 
 looking very much heated after her walk, when Miss Rolf 
 entered. She had a large, fair, good-humored face, rather
 
 Nan. 137 
 
 the worse for all the paint and powder used on the stage ; 
 and her costume of faded lavender silk, lace mantilla, and 
 flowery hat looked as though it might have done a great 
 deal of duty on the boards. Miss Rolf greeted her most 
 courteously, and whispered to Nan to have some lemonade 
 and cake brought in. 
 
 "You see, madam," said Mrs. Landor to the old lady, 
 " we thought we couldn't go off without sending Mollie 
 something ; so we just made up this little sum, hoping it 
 would help things along." 
 
 " I'm sure you were all very thoughtful," said Miss Rolf ; 
 " and you will be glad to know that Mrs. Travers will be 
 well cared for." 
 
 ""Well'm," said the other, fanning herself vigorously, 
 " you see she wasn't brought up in the profession as I was, 
 and she always took things hard. Travers, her husband, 
 was a capital comedy man, and I'm told it was a runaway 
 match ; but he got to drinking, and I think she led a hard 
 life with him. She's one of those that couldn't get along 
 even for herself ; but she's as sweet and as good a creature 
 as I ever knew. We're doing a good business now on the 
 road, and so we thought it only fair poor Mollie should 
 have something." 
 
 Nan brought in the tray of lemonade and cake herself, 
 and timidly offered some to Mrs. Landor, who was much
 
 1 38 Nan. 
 
 pleased, and asked if this was the young lady little David 
 talked of. Nan blushed with delight, and occupied the 
 next few moments in critically examining every article of 
 Mrs. Landor's dress, and every motion of her face or hands, 
 in order to tell Joan what an actress really was like. 
 
 Before Mrs. Landor left, Miss Rolf asked her whether she 
 would not like some flowers; and Nan conducted her into 
 the beautiful garden, where she gathered a heaping basket 
 of roses and heliotrope and other blossoms, to Mrs. Landor's 
 great delight. 
 
 " Well," she said, standing in the garden and surveying 
 the large handsome house among the trees " well, I think 
 Mollie Travers has found friends." A wistful look came 
 into the good-hearted woman's face. "I wish my Janey 
 were going to do half as well in life as I know David will 
 now. Thank you,. I'm sure," she added, as Nan laid one or 
 two more exquisite " Jacque " roses in the basket. " I must 
 say good-bye; and if our company comes this way at Christ- 
 mas, perhaps we'll find Mrs. Travers well again." 
 
 Miss Rolf said she hoped, if the company did return, Mrs. 
 Landor would call again ; and so the good woman departed, 
 well pleased by her visit. 
 
 That afternoon had been determined upon for the taking 
 possession of the new rooms, and Mrs. Landor had no sooner 
 departed than Phyllis and Joan and Lance appeared, to go
 
 Nan. 1 39 
 
 with Nan for the final survey and arrangements of the room. 
 Phyllis came Tip the garden path with a funny little half- 
 satirical smile just curving her lips. 
 
 "Who in the world was your strange visitor, Cousin 
 Letty ?" she inquired. 
 
 Miss Rolf was still standing on the steps where she had 
 watched Nan gather the roses, and she looked a little disap- 
 provingly upon pretty Phyllis. 
 
 " That was a very good-hearted friend of Mrs. Travers," 
 she answered, " who brought a little purse she had made up 
 among her associates for our poor friend." 
 
 Now there was one peculiarity about Aunt Letitia which 
 appealed most strongly to Nan. She rarely used strong 
 words of approval or condemnation, yet in all that she said 
 it was not possible for a person, even of ordinary discern- 
 ment, to mistake her meaning. Phyllis felt intuitively re- 
 buked, and she hastened to change the subject. It was this 
 young lady's inflexible rule never to annoy Cousin Letty. 
 
 Nan was quickly ready for their expedition, and walked 
 along with Joan's hand in hers, eagerly detailing Mrs. Lan- 
 dor's visit. 
 
 " Oh !" said Joan, " how much harder I should have 
 looked at her if I'd only known she was an actress !" 
 
 But, at all events, it was consoling to hear Nan's voluble 
 description ; and, as Joan remarked, perhaps she would come
 
 140 Nan. 
 
 again some day, when Nan promised immediately to send 
 for Joan. 
 
 They found Mrs. Holt anxious to show them how well 
 she had cleaned the rooms, and evidently eager to know 
 what two or three large packages, which had come from 
 Ames's, contained. These were opened in the little sitting- 
 room, and disclosed a pair of pretty muslin curtains, some 
 sofa cushions, and two sets of hanging book-shelves, with 
 some cheap though well-colored blue Japanese china bowls, 
 and a few ornaments of the blue-and-white Satsuma ware. 
 
 Nan had not been mistaken in relying upon Cousin Phyl- 
 lis's exquisite taste, even in arranging the simplest things ; 
 and added to this was so much tact that she induced Mrs. 
 Holt to put away the tawdry ornaments of the room with- 
 out in the least affronting that good woman. 
 
 "My Mirandy made that," she said, dusting the glass 
 shade of some hideous wax flowers, startling fuchsias and 
 lilies of the valley, and big bursting white roses. 
 
 " Oh, then," said Phyllis, sweetly, " hadn't you rather put 
 it away now, Mrs. Holt?" And so one such thing after an- 
 other was disposed of, and then the little sitting-room, with 
 its matted floor and clean walls and windows, the chintz- 
 covered sofa and chairs, looked invitingly ready for their 
 final touches. The book-shelves were hung at each side of 
 the chimney-piece, and on the lower shelves they put some
 
 Nan. 141 
 
 of the Japanese ware, in which fresh flowers could be kept. 
 Then the few pictures good cuts from illustrated papers, 
 and well framed in plain oak were hung ; the sofa cush- 
 ions adjusted, and the curtains nicely draped and tied back 
 with dark-red ribbons. The white marble centre-table was 
 covered with an olive-green cloth, and on it arranged a lamp 
 and a few books, and a lacquer box, in which were pens and 
 pencils ; while an inkstand and blotter were at one side. 
 Nan surveyed the room with delight; and it certainly 
 looked most inviting, though there was nothing in it or 
 about it which suggested luxury. It was a simple abode ; 
 but everything was in good taste and refined. 
 
 In the widow's bedroom a few comforts for an invalid 
 were placed a low table which could be near her bed, a 
 nice bath and a warm wool rug, with one or two cheerful 
 pictures on the walls. David's little room beyond, they 
 felt, they could leave more bare, since, as Nan said, " Boys 
 are only boys." And Joan added, "And they never know 
 what they have about them." 
 
 By three o'clock everything was ready : Flowers in the 
 vases and bowls ; the windows opened, but shaded ; and Mrs. 
 Holt was instructed to have a nice substantial tea ready 
 when the mother and child arrived. And then Nan told 
 Phyllis what Aunt Letty had suggested that Mrs. Heriot 
 and Love should bring them to Miller Street cottage.
 
 142 Nan. 
 
 "Aunt Letty says," said Nan, "that they may feel shy 
 if we are here." 
 
 Phyllis quite agreed to this, but Joan felt as if she would 
 like to have witnessed the Traverses taking possession of 
 their new abode; and Nan had to make herself very con- 
 solatory on the subject all the way home.
 
 Nan. 143 
 
 CHAPTEB XXIII. 
 
 THE next few weeks passed very rapidly ; not alone had 
 Kan to think of her charges in Miller Street, who were cer- 
 tainly thriving, but preparations for Phyllis's birthday were 
 going on in a very elaborate and exciting manner. A great 
 deal of secrecy was required in the doings at the carriage- 
 house, where there were now daily rehearsals Kan perform- 
 ing the part of the Captive, and Laura the Knight. There 
 was some difficulty in making Dicksie, who was the Knight's 
 intimate friend, conduct himself satisfactorily, as he was so 
 exceedingly anxious to see and hear everything that was go- 
 ing on between his own parts that his curly head was con- 
 stantly popping in ; and when on one occasion it was neces- 
 sary for him to appear in disguise wrapped in some thick 
 cloak or muffling he absolutely refused to put anything 
 around him but an old Kottingham lace curtain, through 
 which, of course, every line and feature were ridiculously 
 apparent. Joan as the Magician was very terrible, especially 
 when at one thrilling part she had to produce some music, 
 which she did in a most flourishing manner on a comb. She
 
 144 Nan. 
 
 insisted upon Nan's telling her how Mrs. Landor had moved 
 and walked, feeling sure she ought to get some "hints" for 
 her own performance ; and Nan went into wild fits of laugh- 
 ter over Joan's grimacings and dancings when the final dis- 
 covery is made that the Captive is the Magician's dearly 
 beloved niece. 
 
 There was some difficulty in managing for the appearance 
 of the Captive's relations, when summoned by the Magician ; 
 but here the back window came into requisition Lance 
 offering, as he said, to " shove " them in. Bertie and Alfred 
 represented these shadowy forms, and Lance made a frame- 
 work on which some pink tarlatan was stretched, and be- 
 hind which the Captive's relations looked a little more 
 ghostly than they had during the first rehearsals ; but it was 
 certainly an anxious moment when the Magician said, 
 
 11 Arise, spirits of the house of Gondulfo /" and a scram- 
 bling noise, suppressed laughter, and labored breathing were 
 heard outside, with such whispered remarks as " I say, Lance, 
 you're pinching me !" and " Oh-o-o, that's too tight !" and 
 a very heated and panting personage would half tumble 
 into the little space between the curtain and the pink tarla- 
 tan screen, while the Magician, with his back to the audi- 
 ence, played wildly on his comb, and the Captive seemed in 
 a half-fainting condition. However, the children derived 
 days of enjoyment from the rehearsals ; and when Phyllis's
 
 Nan. 145 
 
 birthday dawned, their condition of anxiety and excitement 
 was scarcely less than if they were to appear before a genu- 
 ine audience. 
 
 Lance wrote out formal invitations to Miss Rolf and Miss 
 Prior (who highly disapproved of the whole thing), to Mrs. 
 Heriot and Mrs. Travers, and David and the Blakes. Be- 
 sides their home party half a dozen young friends were in- 
 vited ; and the morning of the performance was spent in 
 decorating the carriage -house with boughs and trailing 
 vines. Lance and Nan had contrived to make a very pretty 
 banner, with Phyllis's name on it, which they hung directly 
 above the stage. 
 
 " I say, Lance," said Dicksie, as if a wonderfully happy 
 thought had occurred to him, "let's put on it 'In memory 
 of her thirteenth birthday /' ' 
 
 " Hold your little tongue," laughed Lance, from the top 
 of the step-ladder. " Fancy Phyl's look on reading such a 
 thing. Come here, Laura, will you, one moment?" 
 
 Laura was in the little dressing-room they had contrived 
 at one side, and Lance, from his perch among the greens, 
 could look directly down upon her. Nan, at his side, could 
 do the same, and for some reason she could not define a 
 strange feeling like distrust swept across Nan's mind. 
 
 Laura was on her knees under one of the little windows ; 
 before her, on a chair, was the looking-glass which they had
 
 1 46 Nan. 
 
 borrowed from one of the bedrooms, and she was trying the 
 effect of various glittering ornaments on the helmet she was 
 to wear as the Knight. 
 
 They were cheap things ; yet it was strange, when every 
 detail of their costumes had been so openly discussed, that 
 Laura should feel it necessary to go off by herself with 
 something new to decide upon. The ornaments were lying 
 in an open paper on her lap. Nan never forgot just what 
 they looked like. 
 
 Laura started, and looked around up through the aperture 
 where now only Nan's wistful face was discernible, Lance 
 being occupied with some critical piece of his work. Laura 
 colored scarlet and jumped up, wrapping the paper jealously 
 around the trinkets, and putting them with rather a defiant 
 air into her pocket. 
 
 "Lance wants you," said Nan, wondering why her own 
 
 voice sounded so low and constrained. 
 
 
 
 Laura came out very quickly, and busied herself for a 
 few moments with handing Lance what he wanted. When 
 Nan descended from the ladder, she said, carelessly, 
 
 "I was just seeing how some things I got at school 
 would look on my helmet." 
 
 "Why," said Nan, "school is over, I thought." 
 
 " Well, school -girls aren't!" exclaimed Laura, positively 
 angry. " I meant the girls "
 
 LAURA TOTING THE NEW ORNAMENTS ON HER HELMET.
 
 Nan. 147 
 
 Nan could not possibly have told why an atmosphere that 
 was curious and painful seemed to hang about the rest of 
 that morning. Not all of Lance's fun, nor Joan's grimacing 
 and dancing could dispel it; and she was much relieved 
 when Lance proposed her walking with him down to the 
 Blakes. He said he was afraid " Love " would be too shy 
 to come, and they had better go and urge it. 
 
 " Oh, no," said Nan, quickly, " Love isn't like that, Lance 
 she is shy, but it isn't just that way ; she and I have long 
 talks, and she only gets shy sometimes when she is giving 
 me her advice about anything." 
 
 Still Lance insisted upon the walk ; and when they were 
 well on their way, going along the river bank leading to the 
 boat-house, he stopped suddenly and said, 
 
 " Nan, I feel lately as if something queer had come over 
 Laura. Can you think what it is ?" 
 
 Nan felt more strongly than anything else a desire to do 
 Laura the very fullest justice, and she went too far in say- 
 ing: 
 
 "Oh, Lance, what could there be? You know Phyllis 
 has lately had to send for Dr. Hogers for her. She seems 
 to be running down, he said." 
 
 Lance put his lips together and drew up his eyebrows in 
 the way Nan had learned to know meant annoyance or per- 
 plexity with him.
 
 1 48 Nan. 
 
 " It isn't that" he said, shortly ; and Nan was relieved to 
 find he let the subject drop. 
 
 The cousins found Love with her sleeves rolled up, and 
 her plump hands busy making cake. They went around by 
 the side door, and Love nodded to them brightly through 
 the vines across her kitchen window. How cool and sweet 
 and bright it all looked, was what both Lance and Nan 
 thought ; and Love, in her clean gingham dress with a dain- 
 ty apron, was the personification of what you would call a 
 " nice " little maiden. 
 
 She was evidently pleased by their coming, and promised 
 not to fail in her attendance at the play with Mrs. Travers 
 and little David. Lance wanted to linger for a chat with 
 old Blake, but Nan hurried him back ; not before Love had 
 whispered, " I'm going to wear my silk dress !" 
 
 " Oh, Lance !" exclaimed Nan, with glowing eyes, as they 
 left the cottage; "isn't it worth anything to be able to 
 make people happy as Aunt Letty can with her money? 
 How can rich people ever keep their money to themselves !" 
 
 Lance did not tell his little cousin, but he had begun to 
 learn a great many lessons from her. 
 
 What Lance had said of Laura took deeper root in Nan's 
 mind than she would have allowed. It was eleven o'clock 
 when they got back to College Street, and her first thought 
 was to see Laura ; but she was np-stairs, Joan said, from be-
 
 Nan. 149 
 
 hind the scenes, and on going to her door Nan found it 
 locked. 
 
 A cold lunch was prepared for the children, and Phyllis 
 begged of them to eat it promptly. 
 
 " Now, Nan Lance Dicksie," she called out from the 
 second landing on the stairs, " do come down ; because remem- 
 ber all there is to be done to-day and this evening besides." 
 For in the evening Phyllis was to have a " grown-up " party, 
 at which the children had, one and all, permission to assist. 
 
 Down scurried the children, full of delightful excitement, 
 even Laura looking a little brighter as they assembled in the 
 dining-room where Phyllis, never to be flurried or put out 
 of temper, quietly dispensed bread and butter and cakes and 
 cold meat. 
 
 After this came the rush to the carriage-house, the doorg 
 of which were now resplendent with large sheets of paper 
 bearing in red paint the following words : 
 
 THE CAPTIVE AND THE KNIGHT 
 A MAGICAL PLAY 
 
 IN TWO ACTS 
 
 BY Miss LAURA ROLF 
 
 IN HONOR OF 
 
 THE BIRTHDAY OF 
 Miss PHYLLIS ROLF 
 
 AT 
 
 2 O'Clock.
 
 Nan. 
 
 Several of the young invited guests had gathered about 
 the carriage-house, and watched with interest the rush of 
 the performers towards it. Laura was in a mood of evident 
 excitement, and hurried into the dressing-room, taking up 
 her costume of paper muslin and silver paper, here and 
 there fastening upon it some little dangling bits of tinsel 
 which how, she could not afterwards tell impressed them' 
 selves in color and shape upon Nan's mind. 
 
 The barn-doors were flung open at the appointed time ; 
 the guests were assembled in a few moments, and the play 
 began. 
 
 Joan was quite the success of the piece; Laura was too 
 conscious ; Nan too much given to bursts of laughter quite 
 out of keeping with a Princess in captivity ; and the usual 
 scrimmages took place with the spirits of the Princess's rela^ 
 tions. One horrible moment occurred when Bertie, being 
 flung too violently into the window, upset the pink screen, 
 and called out 
 
 " There, Lance, I told you I would !" This produced a 
 laugh, of course, but it was quelled by a most awful look 
 from Joan, who, as the Magician, had painted her face in a 
 way which made her expression very unpleasant, and cer- 
 tainly she had the desired effect upon the laughing audience 
 when she turned it towards them. 
 
 The play ended, the children who had looked on re-
 
 Nan. 151 
 
 mained outside waiting for the Rolfs to appear. Nan dashed 
 into the dressing-room to enjoy a good laugh, where she 
 found Laura hastily putting away the ornaments which had 
 decked her helmet and flowing cloak. 
 
 "Oh why do you take them off?" exclaimed Nan. 
 
 " Because I want to !" snapped Laura. She was dressed 
 first and hurried out. Nan was just folding up the last of 
 her stage finery when she saw one of Laura's ornaments on 
 the floor. She picked it up, thinking how vexed her cousin 
 would be to lose even one of the pretty things ; but when 
 she went out into the barn Laura had vanished. Nan put 
 it into her pocket until she should find her cousin ; but an 
 hour later had forgotten all about it. How much reason 
 she had to regret it later !
 
 152 Nan. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXIV. 
 
 " DOES it rain here often in the autumn ?" 
 
 It was Nan who asked the question as she sat perched in 
 the window of Mrs. Heriot's store-room, while that good 
 woman was busy bottling the last of her preserves. The 
 store-room was hardly on a lower floor than the dining-room 
 and black- walnut parlor ; that is to say, it opened off a little 
 corridor reached by a descent of only three steps, and Nan 
 was always ready to spend an hour there with Mrs. Heriot 
 or Susan, for there was a peculiar fascination about the 
 shelves, and the big, deep window with its little flap of cur- 
 tain, and the space between the cupboards, where were a 
 large, low table and two big, old-fashioned chairs. Some- 
 times Nan had helped Mrs. Heriot pare apples or peaches 
 there, and one delightful day she and Joan had helped label 
 preserve - jars and stick cloves into the pickled pears. In 
 these last they had made various initials with the cloves, in- 
 tending to keep a keen eye open all winter for their reap- 
 pearance. 
 
 . " Does it rain often T rejoined Mrs. Heriot, looking up
 
 Nan. 153 
 
 absent-mindedly from her work. " Well, I don't know 
 what you'd call often. Where I came from in England we 
 thought nothing of ten days' rain together ; but then don't 
 bother, child ! Christmas will bring you a good frost and 
 maybe some skating." 
 
 " Oh, Christmas !" exclaimed Nan. She rubbed a clear 
 place on the window-pane and looked out. Everywhere 
 the lawns and garden-beds were drenched, and there was a 
 melancholy sound in the half-leafless trees. Yet Nan felt 
 very happy. She had so much to fill her life nowadays 
 that even rainy days were pleasant. It was assuredly a 
 cause of regret that Lance had been sent to school in Paris, 
 and Nan had to feel sorry that Lanra was not well ; but 
 Laura had never been her playfellow, and, besides, of late 
 she had been more than ever distant; Joan remained the 
 happy, brisk, loving Joan of the spring and summer time; 
 and, best of all, she had succeeded admirably with her 
 charges, Mrs. Travers and little David. Every week the 
 accounts were satisfactory. Even Miss Prior was beginning 
 to look kindly upon it, and so pleased was Aunt Letty that 
 there was talk of Nan's doing something more extensive 
 next year. Phyllis was no longer supercilious about it, or, 
 at least, she only smiled in her peculiar way once in a while ; 
 and Nan had grown to be really good friends with Love 
 Blake, all through that first meeting. Love had given her
 
 154 Nan. 
 
 the soundest kind of counsel, encouraged her when she felt 
 sad, and even helped her in purchases. Now, Nan knew 
 that to her cousin Phyllis Rolf the boatman's daughter 
 seemed a very ordinary person, yet Nan felt a clinging to 
 her friendship with h.er, and Miss Rolf had never inter- 
 fered. She had never murmured, like Phyllis, that it was 
 a common taste, and Nan felt that little Love, with her 
 quiet, peaceful eyes, and her ready, unselfish heart, could 
 teach her many very noble lessons. 
 
 " There is Susan calling," said Nan, suddenly. Mrs. 
 Heriot put her pickle- jar down and listened, and at that 
 moment Susan appeared, quite breathless, in the doorway. 
 
 "Oh, Miss Annice!" she said, "it's your aunt's carriage 
 come for you. She's in College Street, and you are to go 
 at once, if you please, miss." 
 
 Nan sprang down from her perch. She could not have 
 said why, yet an undefined dread took sudden possession of 
 her. What did it mean ? She knew Miss Rolf had gone 
 out shopping; but why should she have sent for her to 
 come to College Street ? 
 
 " Is Laura ill ?" asked Nan, trembling, as she hurried up- 
 stairs to put on her things. But no one seemed able to an- 
 swer. It was the only emergency she could think of ; for 
 of all the College Street cousins Laura was the only sickly 
 one.
 
 Nan. 155 
 
 Nan hardly knew long afterwards it was difficult to re- 
 member just how she got into the carriage, and, with that 
 nameless dread upon her, was driven down the familiar 
 streets. It was fast growing dark, and the wet pavements 
 shone under the street lamps. The little girl in the car- 
 riage strained her gaze against the window-pane, looking 
 out eagerly for the iron gateway and the galleried wing of 
 the pleasant house. But everything was curiously quiet as 
 she went in, and, according to custom, Nan ran up-stairs to 
 lay off her things in Joan's room. After all, there was 
 nothing so remarkable in being sent for to a house which 
 she was in and out of every other day. Nan smiled at 
 her own fears as she pushed open the door of the girls' 
 room. . 
 
 The darkness was not absolute here. Nan could see a 
 figure on the bed ; and Laura's face, white and haggard, 
 started up from the pillows. On seeing Nan she gave a little 
 shudder, buried her face again, and then looked up with a 
 strained, feverish gaze. 
 
 All Nan's tender heart was filled with pity. "Oh, Laura, 
 darling," she said, hastening to the side of the little bed, 
 " what is it are you worse ?" 
 
 But Laura shrank back a moment, and then said, in a 
 hoarse voice, entirely unlike her own, "Nan! Nan! listen 
 to me : if you tell of me you will kill me !"
 
 156 Nan. 
 
 ""What, /tell of you !" exclaimed Nan. " What do you 
 mean ?" 
 
 " Oh, oh !" moaned Laura, moving restlessly about in the 
 bed. " I am so ill, what can I do ? Go down-stairs, Nan 
 you will hear go down." 
 
 Wonderingly, Nan laid aside her hat and jacket and went 
 down the stairs. Midway she met Phyllis, who stopped and 
 looked at her very strangely. There was only the light of 
 the hall-lamp on the faces of the two cousins, but it showed 
 Phyllis's full of pain and anxiety, and Nan's fearless, sweet 
 glance raised to hers, now only touched by something won- 
 dering and perplexed. 
 
 Phyllis gazed earnestly a moment, and then said, " Go to 
 Aunt Letty in the study, Nan." She added, in an instant, 
 " I know you will make it all right." 
 
 "What?" asked bewildered little Nan; but Phyllis 
 passed swiftly on, and Nan had nothing to do but to seek 
 Aunt Letty in the small library, known as the study. 
 When she opened the door of that room it was a relief 
 to find Miss Rolf seated in the window, alone.
 
 Nan. 
 
 '57 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 Miss ROLF made a quick movement as Kan shut the door 
 quietly after her, and as the little girl stood still, hesitating- 
 ly, in the twilight, she exclaimed : 
 
 " Come here, Annice, there is something I want you to 
 explain at once come, come." 
 
 Miss Rolf seemed feverishly impatient, and unlike her- 
 self. Nan saw in her hands a long bill headed by Ames's 
 mark and address. 
 
 " I have got in the account," Miss Rolf continued. 
 " There are things here oh, Annice !" the old lady ex- 
 claimed, piteously, "if you wanted anything a new sash, 
 or even those tinsel things, or lace collarettes why didn't 
 you tell me ! It would have been so much better than to 
 buy them in secret." 
 
 "//" Nan gasped out the word. She was more bewil- 
 dered than ever. 
 
 " Look !" exclaimed Miss Rolf again, imperiously. " Read 
 this." And she pushed the long bill towards the child. 
 
 Nan mechanically took it in her hands and began reading
 
 158 Nan. 
 
 as well as she could. Scattered among the articles she had 
 purchased for the Traverses were various others, unknown 
 to her pink sash-ribbon, lace collarettes, collars, cuffs, tinsel 
 ornaments, beads the number and the strangeness of it be- 
 wildered poor Nan, while her aunt threateningly stood over 
 her. Suddenly, like an awful shock, as it were from the 
 very heavens, it flashed over her : She had seen these very 
 things in Laura? s possession ! 
 
 "What it all meant Nan could not even then tell, but, 
 coupled with Laura's wild supplications " not to tell of her," 
 she felt there was guilt somewhere, and that not her own. 
 Nan was too young to be entirely self-possessed or equal to 
 knowing what to do. The paper shook in her hands. What 
 could she do or say ? Little by little occasions came back 
 to her mind when she had seen Laura quickly hiding these 
 things. And the tinsel ornaments ! How clearly Nan now 
 understood what Laura's anxiety to hide them after the play 
 had meant ! 
 
 For Nan those moments were horrible. What could 
 she do? It was not in her heart or nature suddenly to 
 speak and condemn her cousin. But there was Aunt Letty 
 waiting, with her features all drawn and haggard, all too 
 anxious to restore Nan to favor, yet evidently thinking the 
 worst. 
 
 " Oh 1" cried Nan, suddenly, looking up wildly at her aunt,
 
 Nan. 159 
 
 "please let me wait a moment; give me a few moments 
 and I can tell you." 
 
 She flung down the paper and started up the stairs to 
 Laura's room. It was dark, and yet she could see the white 
 face on the pillow, and hear Laura moan. She flung herself 
 down beside the bed, whispering, " Oh, Laura, I must tell, 
 you know you know ! Oh, let me tell them !" her voice 
 broke down in sobs. 
 
 " You shall not !" whispered Laura back. " You will kill 
 me if you do. Wait a little while. You must not !" 
 
 Laura really grew faint, and Nan looked at her, half in 
 pity, half in contempt. 
 
 " And you will not own to it ?" Nan asked, slowly. 
 
 But Laura only buried her face and sobbed convulsively. 
 Had not Phyllis appeared Nan would have said more ; but 
 on seeing her older cousin the little girl turned and left the 
 room, returning to the study. "What was there for her to 
 do or to say ? She could not tell. How could she blame 
 Laura ? how stand up and disgrace her cousin Phyllis's sis- 
 ter ? and even were she to do so, would she be believed ? 
 And Laura really ill, worn out, Nan did not now doubt, by 
 her wretched secret. 
 
 Everything seemed to be in a whirl about her as she re- 
 entered the study, where Miss Rolf still stood as she had 
 left her.
 
 1 60 Nan. 
 
 " Well ?" The old lady spoke sharply. 
 
 But Nan, for the first time, only hung her head. 
 
 " Explain this, Annice," her aunt said, coldly. 
 
 Nan tried to find her voice, and failed. Then she said, 
 slowly, " I cannot." 
 
 " Is it that you will not ?" demanded her aunt. 
 
 No answer. 
 
 "Annice, did you hear me?" 
 
 " Yes, Aunt Letty." 
 
 " And can you not answer ?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 Nan's voice sounded even to herself a far-away whisper. 
 There was silence for a moment silence, at least, in the little 
 room. Outside the rain beat furiously, and for a long time 
 Annice Rolf never heard the same sound without a recollec- 
 tion of the faint, sick feeling that possessed her, as she stood 
 with bowed head before her aunt. 
 
 " You may go," said Miss Rolf, presently. " Go home 
 at once in the carriage, and send it back for me. And go 
 at once to your room. Do you hear, Annice ? Go at once." 
 
 It seemed like a dream to Nan her going up the stairs, 
 knocking at Laura's door, and mechanically asking Phyllis 
 for her things. How she put them on ; how she got into 
 the carriage and gave her aunt's orders ; how she drove home 
 through the dark, wet streets, and reached the house and
 
 Nan. 161 
 
 her own little room seemed afterwards all recollections in 
 the rnists of a nightmare. But there she was at last, in the 
 window of her room, and crying as if her heart would break. 
 Oh, for one word with Lance, or Love Blake ! And if Laura 
 should never tell ! And in the midst of all, and, I rejoice to 
 say, the very worst of all seemed to Nan to lie in the fact 
 of Laura's double deceit. What could have induced her to 
 it? "Wayward, thoughtless, forgetful as was Nan, her con- 
 science was unstained by any actual sin, and not for worlds 
 could she have been tempted to a lie.
 
 1 62 Nan. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 IT seemed to Nan hours afterwards that she heard her 
 aunt's step along the corridor pause a moment near her 
 door, and go on to her own room. The door closed ; the 
 house was still. Nan crept wretchedly into bed, and cried 
 herself to sleep. There was no one to advise her, and she 
 could only pray in an agonized, dumb sort of way ; but God 
 can hear thoughts as well as words, and it had comforted 
 her that she had asked his help. To Kan it seemed as if 
 black despair would settle upon her, for she gradually in- 
 duced herself to believe that it would be cruelly wrong 
 to " tell of " Laura. Surely, some day they would know 
 the rights of it; but meanwhile, how was she to endure 
 her life? All her former loneliness returned upon her. 
 She lay there in the bed, feeling as forlorn as the first night 
 of her arrival, and she would have given all she hoped to 
 own to disentangle this mystery ; for, in one sense, mystery 
 it was. How and why had Laura contrived to put those 
 things on her bill? Nan's brain exhausted from bewilder- 
 ment, and at best only a little fourteen-year-old brain re- 
 fused to solve the question.
 
 Nan. 163 
 
 She awoke to find her room full of sunlight, and Mrs. 
 Heriot standing over her with a grieved face. 
 
 Nan raised her head ; the tears of the night still stained 
 her cheeks, and there were signs of weeping in good Mrs. 
 Heriot's eyes as well. 
 
 " My child," she said, tenderly, " whatever has happened ? 
 Miss Kolf doesn't want to tell me, but it's something you 
 won't own to her ; now do it do it, dear, I say." 
 
 Nan looked up wistfully. 
 
 " / cannot" was all she could say. 
 
 Mrs. Heriot turned away to the window with a sigh. 
 
 Nan lay still, trying to think what to do ; but now there 
 was only one idea predominating. She must guard Laura's 
 secret until she chose to tell it. Had Nan been wiser or 
 older, she would at once have taken her aunt into her 
 full confidence, well knowing that so true and kind a 
 nature as Miss Rolf's would never deal unjustly; but 
 then, all Nan felt was that a sense of honor demanded her 
 silence. 
 
 " Then I'm afraid," said Mrs. Heriot, turning from the 
 window, " you'll not see your aunt the day. I was to come 
 and ask you. Am I to just tell her you cannot f" 
 
 Nan tearfully nodded, and slowly Mrs. Heriot left the 
 room. When she returned, Nan was sitting, dressed, in the 
 window.
 
 164 Nan. 
 
 " You're to go to breakfast," said Mrs. Heriot. " But your 
 aunt says you're not to speak to her." 
 
 What a ineal it was ! It seemed to choke poor Nan, who 
 gladly escaped even to Miss Prior, and for the first time she 
 plunged ardently into her lessons ; but Miss Prior did not 
 believe in praise, so she gave none, only Nan's unusual zeal 
 made the study-hours more tranquil. Miss Rolf did not 
 appear at dinner nor at tea. The intervening time Nan 
 passed miserably in her own room. After tea she was sent 
 for to the black-walnut parlor, where she found her aunt at 
 her desk. 
 
 " Nan," she said, very gravely, " I wish to tell you that 
 making no remark about what I must say I consider your 
 dishonest conduct I paid the bill at Ames's. This, I hope, 
 will lead you to a candid and full confession to me. You 
 must know that the credit was only given for articles to be 
 bought by you for the Traverses. In looking over your 
 clothes your summer clothes to-day, I found this in one 
 of your pockets." Nan started as her aunt held up the lit- 
 tle tinsel ornament she remembered having picked up that 
 day long ago in the carriage-house. " Of course," contin- 
 ued Miss Rolf, " this only confirmed what your silence indi- 
 cated." 
 
 There was a long pause, during which a sound of sobbing 
 rose in Nan's throat.
 
 Nan. 165 
 
 " Have you nothing to say, Annice ?" asked her aunt, 
 very sadly. 
 
 But Nan could only shake her head, and say " No." 
 
 "Will you tell me nothing of it?" 
 
 " I cannot," again said Nan. 
 
 " Go," answered her aunt, standing up quickly. " Go ! 
 It is a terrible blow to me, child, to be so disappointed in 
 you." 
 
 Nun turned, and fled along the hall up to her own room. 
 It seemed to her as if some strong decision had been made 
 by Miss Rolf as she spoke the last words, and so the next 
 morning proved. Mrs. Heriot came to her while she was 
 at her lessons, and called her into the hall. Then she said, 
 in a quiet voice, which Nan did not know was full of half- 
 suppressed tears, 
 
 "My dear, you're to go back to Bromn'eld. There 
 don't be so startled. Your aunt means to pay your board 
 and have you taught ; but you're to go to-morrow." 
 
 Poor little Nan ! What could she do or say ? She did 
 not see her aunt again. Through Mrs. Heriot she begged 
 to see Joan, or Mrs. Travers and David, but this was denied 
 her ; and on the next morning, while she was again sitting 
 forlornly in her room, Mrs. Heriot brought her the follow- 
 ing note, written in Miss Rolfs delicate, old-fashioned 
 hand:
 
 1 66 Nan. 
 
 "I cannot trust myself to see you, my child. It would 
 grieve me too much. I am sending you back to Bromfield, 
 where your board will be paid and a suitable sum allowed 
 for your schooling and clothing. I do not think it wise for 
 you to go to a school while you have your present ideas of 
 honor. Do all you can to improve your mind ; and, above 
 all, pray to God to spare you further wrong-doing. Your 
 step-aunt, Mrs. Rupert, is expecting you. She knows noth- 
 ing of what you have done." 
 
 Nan read the letter in a dazed, stupefied way, sitting in 
 the window of her once homelike room ; but now all seemed 
 curiously changed. Was that the same garden she had 
 looked at the other day? Were these her clothes lying 
 about, which Mrs. Heriot was silently folding and packing ? 
 It was a strange morning in Nan's life ; but when, later in 
 the day, she found herself being driven away from Rolf 
 House with Mrs. Heriot, all her repressed feelings gave 
 way. She flung herself upon the good woman's shoulder 
 and burst into tears. Not one good-bye even! Not one 
 parting glimpse of Joan's kindly little face ! Not one word 
 with David and Mrs. Travers ! Oh, it seemed a cruel end- 
 ing of her beautiful, happy life !
 
 Nan. 167 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 EVENING usually found Mrs. Eupert very tired and rather 
 cross. On days that trade was not brisk she was apt to be 
 particularly acid in her manner, and on this October even- 
 ing things were in a very unpleasant " condition of work- 
 ing," as she called them. To begin with, Marian had gone 
 to spend the day with a friend, and had not returned. Mary 
 and Georgie, the two younger children, had been very 
 troublesome going to bed, and, to crown everything, the gas 
 would not light, so that Mrs. Rupert had been compelled to 
 run out herself for oil and get ready two lamps one for 
 the Store and one for the parlor. 
 
 Nan was expected back. Mrs. Rupert, as she poked the 
 miserable little fire in the sitting-room, wondered why this 
 rearrangement had been made. It was a great considera- 
 tion, of course, to have her board paid ; but why, if her aunt 
 had intended to make her her heiress, should she be returned 
 to Bromfield ? 
 
 "I know how it will end," thought Mrs. Rupert, nodding 
 her head sagely ; " the old lady'll die and leave her quite on 
 my hands again."
 
 1 68 Nan. 
 
 It was only five o'clock, but dark as any winter evening ; 
 and as the carriage from the station, containing Nan and 
 Mrs. Heriot, drove to the door, the little house and store 
 looked dismal enough. 
 
 " Eh ! my, is this the place ?" ejaculated Mrs. Heriot. 
 
 Nan could not answer her heart was too full. She fol- 
 lowed Mrs. Heriot out of the carriage, and showed her the 
 way to the house - door, which was speedily opened upon 
 Mrs. Rupert's portly figure and large face. 
 
 " Well, Nan Rojf !" was her greeting. A stare at Mrs. 
 Heriot was followed by " And who is this, may I ask ?" 
 
 " My name is Heriot, rna'am," was the very bland answer ; 
 "I was sent by Miss Rolf here with Miss Annice. And 
 now, my dear," she added, standing inside the dingy hall- 
 way for a moment only, " I think I'll just leave you and 
 go. Good-bye, love " with a hearty kiss which Nan pas- 
 sionately returned ; " do you mind and write to your aunt 
 soon." And almost before Nan knew how it was done, the 
 door had closed, and she was alone with her step-aunt. 
 
 Mrs. Rupert led the way up the well-known stairs and 
 into the sitting-room, which it seemed to Nan she must 
 have left ages ago, instead of only six months since. How 
 dingy and disorderly it looked after the quiet neatness and 
 comfort of Rolf House ! The fact of Mrs. Rupert's trade 
 and moderate circumstances was not the excuse for this.
 
 Nan. 1 69 
 
 Nan knew better now. Was not Mr. Blake far poorer, and 
 only a boatman ? and yet how dainty and sweet were all of 
 Love's surroundings. No, this was all due to the nat- 
 ure of Mrs. Rupert herself, and Nan had seen enough of 
 the world to appreciate this keenly. 
 
 " Well," said Mrs. Rupert, setting the lamp down on the 
 table, " I don't suppose you expected to be back from your 
 fine relations so soon, Miss Nan did you ? I'm sure I 
 don't think the board she's to pay is so much." 
 
 "Oh, aunt!" cried poor Nan, blushing, "don't please 
 don't speak of that I'll work ; I'll do what I can." 
 
 " Oh, you will, will you ?" said Mrs. Rupert, turning 
 around, with a laugh. " Well, we'll see. Now, I suppose 
 you want some supper." 
 
 In spite of her woes, Nan was hungry, and was very hon- 
 estly glad of the plate of hot sausages and potatoes and the 
 pie Mrs. Rupert placed before her. Her step-aunt plied her 
 with questions about her life at Rolf House, all of which 
 she answered so listlessly that at last Mrs. Rupert jumped 
 up, exclaiming : 
 
 " Well, I d'know as I ever took much stock in those peo- 
 ple. Make up your mind they've thrown you off once and 
 for all. And, Nan, see here: I don't believe as you'll get 
 more than a year's board and schooling out of them; and 
 I've made my mind up as you'd oughter learn some trade.
 
 Nan. 
 
 I can't keep you, and there's nothing else for you to do, as 
 I can see." 
 
 Poor Nan! It struck her only too forcibly that this 
 might be the case, and she spent a wretched and, if the 
 truth must be told, rather a rebellious evening, considering 
 her future. One comforting feature was in her new life at 
 Bromfield : she had a room to herself. It was only one of 
 the attic rooms, bare and miserably gloomy, but it was all 
 her own. There she felt she could sometimes be free from 
 intrusion. It would be a place to think of Lance and Joan 
 in ; perhaps a place to cry in. 
 
 She helped Mrs. Kupert up-stairs with her trunk, and be- 
 fore she went to bed unpacked her little belongings, trying 
 to arrange them with Eolf House precision in the small 
 bureau and cupboard. Oh, for one hour in Beverley ! "When 
 her aunt left her, Nan pressed her face against the window 
 looking out on the weedy, dank garden, and felt as if her 
 heart would break. Much as she desired to be alone, it 
 was a relief to hear Marian's high - pitched voice, about 
 eight o'clock, when that young person burst into the 
 room. 
 
 " Well, Nan !" she exclaimed, kissing her rather boister- 
 ously ; " I do declare, who'd have ever expected you back ?" 
 
 Nan tried to laugh. " I hope you're not sorry, Marian," 
 she said, quietly.
 
 Nan. 
 
 171 
 
 "Oh, no; I don't suppose I am," rejoined her cousin, 
 " unless you're too fine a lady to suit our ways." 
 
 " I don't think I'm a fine lady," said Nan, laughing. 
 
 Marian sat down on the little bed, and stared some time 
 at Nan. 
 
 " "Well, you're changed some," she remarked, finally ; and 
 then, standing up and giving her dress various little perks, 
 she continued, "Do you think Fm changed?" 
 
 " Yes," ?aid Nan, very honestly. 
 
 In the six months Marian had developed into what she 
 considered constituted a "young lady." She was only fif- 
 teen, but she had left school, was in a dressmaking establish- 
 ment, and had acquired all the most pernicious airs and 
 graces of her companions. She wore the latest fashions in 
 cheap imitations ; had " banged " her pretty blonde hair so 
 low over her eyes that every bit of the smooth, white brow 
 was concealed; screwed in her waist until her shoulders 
 and hips looked like caricatures, and wore a great deal of 
 tawdry lace, cheap jet, and imitation jewelry. Marian had 
 always been a pretty girl, and, but for her vulgarity and 
 false taste in dress, would have been prettier than ever 
 but Nan, looking at her, wondered what Love Blake would 
 say to her ! Love, with her pretty brown silk, so simply 
 made, her snowy collars and cuffs, her smooth, untortured 
 brow.
 
 172 Nan. 
 
 " The girls aic our place are awfully stylish," Marian said, 
 evidently thinking she had made a profound impression 
 upon her cousin, " and we have to dress a great deal, I can 
 tell you. Well, good-night, Nan ! Dear, what a sober face 
 you have !" 
 
 And Marian, laughing loudly, ran out of the room and 
 down the stairs, humming bits of " Champagne Charlie," a 
 song just then coming into vogue. 
 
 " What would her life here be ?" Nan questioned herself, 
 lying in the dark, long after the house was still. She had 
 not known until now how much the quiet, refined associa- 
 tions of her life in Beverley had done for her. Now, all 
 that she had seen jarred upon every nerve. And was it 
 just? Then there came into Nan's mind the words of a 
 little hymn Love was fond of singing 
 
 "God's time for waiting 
 Shall be mine." 
 
 "Oh, can it be?" thought poor little Nan, closing her 
 eyes tightly; but the words were like a prayer, and she 
 tried with honesty to repeat " Shall be mine."
 
 Nan. 173 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 PHILIP'S absence from home was an unexpected disap- 
 pointment to Nan ; but the reason gave her some comfort. 
 It appeared that he had developed a decided talent for 
 paintifcg, and so had been sent abroad by the same gentle- 
 man who was paying all his expenses. 
 
 " I declare," said Mrs. Rupert, as she and Nan were at 
 work the next morning in the kitchen, " it's wonderful the 
 fancy that Mr. Field's took to Philip. Just saw him a few 
 times, and put him to Barnabas ; and now sent him abroad. 
 He says he'll do well. Now Marian, she's doing splendid, 
 if only they don't turn her head with compliments. She's 
 so good-looking and so stylish." 
 
 Nan listened, thinking more of Philip than of Marian. 
 She wondered if he would ever do anything, or seem to do 
 anything, to cause Mr. Field to send him home in disgrace. 
 She hoped no such fate would befall him. 
 
 " Now, Nan, work smart," called out Mrs. Rupert, " your 
 teacher'll be here soon." And Nan hurried with the break- 
 fast dishes, so that she was ready for her new teacher by 
 nine o'clock.
 
 1 74 Nan. 
 
 Miss Eolf evidently had employed some one to engage 
 this governess a gentle, quiet-looking lady about thirty 
 years of age, who began the lessons without any questions 
 as to Nan's recent life. Altogether, the morning was not 
 unhappy, except that Nan had grown so painfully conscious 
 of the dust and disorder about her that she watched Mrs. 
 Leigh's glance every time it rested on any one object, feel- 
 ing a deep sense of mortification. 
 
 But good came of this. Nan felt certain she might make 
 something of the room ; for her ideas had developed greatly 
 since she left Bromfield as to household matters. Accord- 
 ingly, to Mrs. Rupert's great surprise, she asked permission 
 to have the sitting-room to herself for an hour before the 
 children returned from school ; and it was wonderful what 
 she contrived to do. Soap and water, dusters, and a broom 
 made the place seem entirely different. And then Nan 
 begged to be allowed to hunt in the attic for some bits of 
 carpet. These she managed to sew in patches under the 
 ragged places, and after mending a few tears in the cur- 
 tains she felt quite triumphant. It mattered somewhat, 
 however, that Mrs. Rupert and Marian laughed at her, and 
 that the children coming home created fresh disorder ; but 
 still she felt conscious of well-doing. 
 
 When, after dinner, Nan carried her books up-stairs to her 
 little attic room, she was cheered by a feeling that, in spite
 
 Nan. 1 75 
 
 of the misery of her false position, she could do something. 
 She would set herself to make the shabby house brighter 
 and cleaner, and more homelike. After a time Mrs. Rupert 
 and Marian would feel differently about her motives in so 
 doing. 
 
 No one must suppose that Nan worked wonders sudden- 
 ly, nor that she grew very happy in doing her little work. 
 On the contrary, it was a tedious process all around. It 
 was hard to keep any place tidy or even tolerably comfort- 
 able. And her heart ached for news of Beverley. Miss 
 Rolf wrote, but only to send her board and the money 
 needful for her expenses ; and as October and November 
 dragged by Nan's loneliness increased. Nothing could have 
 been much more comfortless as a home than the Rupert 
 household; and Nan used to think the "waiting time" was 
 more than she could bear.
 
 1 76 Nan. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 PHYLLIS, only, knew the reason why Miss Kolf had sent 
 Nan to Bromfield ; and, as the winter wore on, it puzzled 
 and perplexed her more and more. She had seen a great 
 many evidences of what she considered a " common taste " 
 in Nan, but never one atom of anything like untruthf ulness 
 or dishonesty. She often recalled the glance of perfectly 
 fearless innocence which Nan had given her that very night 
 on the stairs ; and with this it seemed harder than ever to 
 believe her guilty of deceit. But then Phyllis often wound 
 up such reflections by saying to herself, " It is the streak of 
 common blood in her veins, I suppose; it must come out 
 somewhere." 
 
 If Phyllis was unhappy, Miss Kolf was doubly so. She 
 felt a strong purpose taken right out of her life, and it was 
 hardening her into the cold, reserved woman she had been 
 so long before Nan crept into her heart. 
 
 One afternoon, shortly before Christmas, Phyllis was sit- 
 ting alone in her own room by the fire, busily working on 
 some present for the approaching festivity, when she heard
 
 Nan. 177 
 
 some one in the adjoining room, sobbing. It was Joan, who 
 appeared with a piece of crumpled paper in her hands, ex- 
 claiming, " Oh, Phyl, this makes me so unhappy ! See, this 
 is our compact of eternal friendship Nan's and mine and 
 it's as bad as telling a lie never to write to her !" 
 
 Joan held out the little paper she and Nan had written 
 that May afternoon so long ago ; and, as Phyllis read it, the 
 words so innocently written, "God bless this!" woke new 
 belief in the child's honesty. Phyllis comforted Joan, all 
 the time revolving the question in her mind, and was sud- 
 denly startled by hearing Joan say, 
 
 " Where has Laura gone, do you know ? and may I have 
 this to make Nan a Christmas present ?" 
 
 She held up a piece of pink satin, from which some bits 
 had been cut, and a yard or two of Valenciennes lace. 
 
 " Where did you get that, Joan ?" exclaimed Phyllis. 
 
 " In the other room," explained the tearful Joan, " in a 
 little broken box on the floor." 
 
 Phyllis made no answer; she arose and went into the 
 next room, closing the door after her. It was a room rarely 
 used ; but since Laura had been so delicate she had often 
 slept there to be near Phyllis, and used it in the daytime to 
 sit in, so that her things were often about. The box of 
 which Joan spoke lay half in, half out, of the flounce of the 
 chintz lounge. Phyllis drew it out with trembling hands.
 
 1 78 Nan. 
 
 There was no mistaking its contents. They were cer- 
 tainly, in part, the articles charged to Nan at Ames's store. 
 
 Phyllis hardly knew what to think. All that she could 
 feel sure of was, that Laura was involved in the affair; but 
 how far she could not tell. One thing, she knew, must be 
 done at once that was, to find Laura and make her ex- 
 plain it. 
 
 Poor Phyllis ! Pride had always been her strongest point ; 
 and belief in the uprightness of the children she had in 
 reality brought up was almost a sacred thing to her. How 
 could she face Miss Rolf and say, " It is my little sister who 
 has, at least, been involved in this ; not only poor Kan, whom 
 we pitied because she had been badly brought up ?" And 
 then there flashed upon Phyllis a sickening feeling lest, 
 through Laura, gross injustice had been done poor Nan. 
 
 "Joan," she said, looking in upon her little sister, "if 
 Laura has gone out it must have been to Rolf House, as she 
 never goes anywhere else. Pm going there at once and 
 don't let them wait tea for me. I'll be back as early as 
 I can." 
 
 Whatever Phyllis's faults, her sense of what was justly 
 due under sucli circumstances was keen and pure. Though 
 feeling half ill with dread of what she might discover, she 
 put on her things and walked quickly up College Street to 
 Rolf House. Her first inquiry was if Laura were there ; and
 
 Nan. 1 79 
 
 the answer, " Yes, miss, she is reading in the library," sent 
 a new flutter to her heart. But she walked straight into 
 the room where Laura, looking very white and languid, was 
 lounging with a book before the fire. 
 
 "Laura," the older sister said, going up to the little girl 
 and kneeling down beside her, " I want you to tell me at 
 once, dear, how you came by all those things Nan was 
 supposed to have bought at Ames's." 
 
 Laura stared a moment, and then burst into tears ; but to 
 Phyllis's amazement it seemed a relieved sort of weeping. 
 She rocked back and forth a moment, and then exclaimed 
 between her sobs, 
 
 "Oh, Phyl Phyl have you found out? I'm so gladr 
 I've come here day after day trying to confess it. Oh, I 
 know how bad I am and Nan is so good !" 
 
 Phyllis knelt very still by her little sister a moment, try- 
 ing to know what to do or say. Moral emergencies, some- 
 how, always baffled her. She could reprove and adviso 
 judiciously on most matters, but to know how to lead a 
 heart stricken with remorse a conscience ashamed of what 
 it held was beyond her. After a moment she said, in a 
 low voice, 
 
 " Lollie, try and tell me all about it." 
 
 And then the miserable story came out. The girls at 
 school, Laura said, were in the habit of wearing so many
 
 180 Nan. 
 
 little bits of finery, such as she never possessed ; and one 
 day, having saved her pocket-money for a special ribbon, 
 she went into Ames's and bought it. Just as she was about 
 to pay for it, the clerk said, "Aren't you Miss Rolf's niece, 
 who has things charged to her ?" 
 
 Poor Laura ! it was the first moment of temptation. She 
 answered yes ; had the ribbon charged, meaning to pay for 
 it later, as in her ignorance of such matters she believed she 
 could ; and then, little by little, the fascination for buying, 
 " like the other girls," grew upon her, and she kept hoping 
 always to save money before the end of the year to pay it 
 up, believing the bill would not be presented until January. 
 It was, indeed, only by a chance that Miss Rolf had asked 
 for it earlier. Then had come a desperate fit of terror, and, 
 believing Nan would be forgiven, she had meanly kept 
 silence. What followed, Phyllis knew. Certainly, Laura 
 told the whole story now unreservedly. 
 
 It seemed to Phyllis in 'that hour as though something 
 in her very heart gave way. Nan, for whom they had all 
 secretly entertained a feeling that she was not their equal 
 Nan had shown herself the bravest and most upright 
 of all. 
 
 " Laura," said poor Phyllis, " you must tell Cousin Letty." 
 Laura gave a gasp, and put out a detaining hand as Phyllis 
 was moving. "I will go first, and speak to her about it;
 
 Nan. 1 8 1 
 
 but she must know at once. There must not be a moment 
 lost." 
 
 Laura gobbed more violently than ever; and Phyllis went 
 away and across to the black-walnut parlor, where she was 
 tolerably sure to find her cousin. 
 
 There the old lady was seated, with listlessly folded hands, 
 in the window where Nan had made out her accounts that 
 first evening. She was looking across the wintry garden- 
 beds, and thinking of the lost child who had been so dear 
 to her who had come in her lonely old age, to open the 
 secret springs of love in her heart. 
 
 Phyllis had a choking feeling in her throat as she went 
 in, and for a moment she could hardly speak. But noth- 
 ing could have been better than her first words : 
 
 " Oh, Cousin Letitia, I know all about it ! Nan Nan is 
 perfectly innocent ! She never deceived you, except that 
 she did not tell what she knew of others."
 
 1 82 Nan. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 I CAN hardly describe Kan's state of mind as Christmas 
 drew near. Bromfield began early to show signs of the ap 
 preaching festivity ; and as Nan walked about the snowy 
 streets often just for the sake of turning her mind from 
 sad thoughts the gayety of the shop-windows, the blithe 
 air of the passers-by, all jarred upon her painfully. 
 
 Mrs. Rupert had begun to treat her niece very coldly. 
 More and more was she certain that Nan's " folks " at Bev- 
 erley meant gradually to cast her off, so she insisted on 
 Nan's making herself useful in every way ; and the child 
 rose early and worked late in order to accomplish all tha*:- 
 was required of her. But occupation, she knew, was belt; ? 
 than sitting idle with her thoughts ; only sometimes Nan*.; 
 head ached painfully over her sums, and often kind-hearted 
 Mrs. Leigh had to excuse her from her lessons entirely. 
 
 The Ruperts began to feel the effect of Nan's efforts at 
 tidiness in the house. She had rummaged out some bits 
 of curtaining old muslin but when washed and starched 
 it looked very well ; and, by dint of close saving, she had
 
 Nan. 1 83 
 
 contrived to have the furniture mended, a new cover put on 
 the mantel-board, and chintz slips on the easy-chairs. Mrs. 
 .Rupert was willing enough to accept Nan's labors so long 
 as they did not interfere with what she needed her to do ; 
 and Marian seemed better pleased to bring her young friends 
 home with her, now that the sitting-room had an air of clean- 
 liness and something like comfort. 
 
 It was the twentieth of December; Nan was sitting in 
 the parlor late in the afternoon, with Georgie and Mary be- 
 side her, and a big pile of stockings waiting to be darned in 
 the basket at her side. She was trying to work, but some- 
 how her thoughts kept wandering away to Beverley. She 
 could just imagine how delightfully they were preparing 
 for Christmas. There would be genuine " fun " at College 
 Street, and she felt sure that Aunt Letty would provide 
 presents for Love and Mrs. Travers and little David. At 
 thought of these Nan fairly broke down ; her tears were 
 falling on the stockings, when Georgie cried out, 
 
 " Hi I there's a hack before the door ! Who's that, Nan ?" 
 Nan hastily dried her eyes and looked out of the window. 
 It was a hack. Could it be Mrs. Ileriot who descended ? 
 Nan's very heart stood still. She sprang up, holding her 
 work in her hands as in a vise. Mary and Georgie fled away 
 down-stairs to know who the visitor was, and so Nan was 
 left alone in the little parlor.
 
 184 Nan. 
 
 Five minutes seemed to pass before the door opened, and 
 then Mrs. Heriot came hurrying in, and in a second Nan 
 was clasped in her motherly arms. 
 
 " Oh, my child ! my dearie !" the good woman exclaimed. 
 " Whatever was wrong is right now ! and they can't wait to 
 get you home again quick enough. Come, haste ! get your 
 little hat on, and come." 
 
 But for the first time in her life Kan had fainted 
 dead away. When she opened her eyes, it was to see Mrs. 
 Rupert and Mrs. Heriot bending over her with a collection 
 of horribly smelling restoratives ; but the first thing she did 
 was to smile from sheer happiness. 
 
 " I think, mem, if you please," Mrs. Heriot was saying, in 
 iciest tones, to Aunt Rupert, " we'll get her down to the 
 hotel, where her cousin, Miss Phyllis Rolf, is waiting for 
 her." 
 
 Mrs. Rupert was very much impressed, particularly by the 
 box of Christmas presents Mrs. Heriot had brought with 
 her for the entire household ; and she facilitated Nan's de- 
 parture, saying nothing more unpleasant than " Well, I hope 
 they'll either keep her or leave her once and for all this 
 time." 
 
 But Nan was too dreamily happy to care for anything 
 Mrs. Rupert could do or say now. Once more she drove 
 down the streets of Bromfield on her way to Beverley.
 
 NAN FAINTS IN MRS. IJERIOT'P ARMS.
 
 Nan. 185 
 
 Everything seemed confused ; but it was clear enough that 
 they stopped at the big country hotel on Main Street, went 
 up-stairs and into a cheerful room, where Phyllis stood wait- 
 ing. How differently her cousin met her this time from 
 the first! Then, Phyllis had been all condescension and 
 superiority; but now she opened her arms, clasped Kan 
 in them, and murmured, lovingly, 
 
 " Oh, my dear child, you must forgive us we understand 
 it all, and never again shall you go away." 
 
 This one half -hour would have seemed joy enough to 
 Nan ; but it was delightful to have a cosey tea with Phyllis, 
 and then, before they went to bed, to hear how Aunt Letty 
 \vas ardently expecting her " home again." 
 
 Phyllis did not ask Nan why she had not spoken of Lau- 
 ra's deceit. She knew well what had governed the humbler 
 cousin ; and Nan was content to know the merest outlines 
 of what Laura had done. It was, indeed, enough that all 
 was explained, and that they wanted her home again at 
 Beverley. 
 
 Meanwhile, at Eolf House, Aunt Letty was in a state of 
 genuine excitement. Her darling was coming back, and 
 great had been the preparations for her return. To Laura 
 Miss Rolf had said very little, for the girl's remorse and 
 penitence were entirely sincere. She begged so humbly to 
 be allowed to help prepare for Nan's return, that Miss Rolf
 
 1 86 Nan. 
 
 had kept her with her, and her dear Love Blake was there 
 too, to whom Laura seemed to cling as to something or 
 somebody who suggested Nan. 
 
 There was a great deal of dusting and moving about of 
 furniture in a large, sunny room near Nan's school-room, 
 and which had always been closed except for certain elderly 
 visitors. Indeed, Nan had rarely seen it. Everything was 
 what she called "stuffy" in it; but had she looked in on 
 the work going on there during these days, she would have 
 changed her mind. 
 
 Rolf House once again ! As the carnage turned up the 
 well-known drive, Nan hardly knew whether to believe she 
 was really wide awake ; but the sight of the lighted win- 
 dows, the door, flung open by eager hands, was real enough, 
 and when a moment later she found herself in the hall, 
 clasped close to her aunt's heart, there was no longer possi- 
 bility for fancying it a dream. 
 
 " We are glad to have you home again, my dear," was all 
 that Aunt Letty said, but Nan looked up at her with satis- 
 fied eyes. She could afford in her happiness to turn to 
 Laura, who was hanging back, with a very sweet word of 
 greeting. 
 
 Between Miss Eolf and Laura a look was exchanged, and 
 then the former said : 
 
 " Nan, Laura has been very busy helping us prepare a
 
 Nan. 187 
 
 room for you. Perhaps you would like to go up with her 
 and see it." 
 
 Again caine Nan's smile. It was a tearful little smile, 
 and she could not trust herself to talk, but she slipped one 
 hand into Laura's, and the two cousins went up-stairs. 
 
 Down past the old school-room Laura led her, and then 
 opened the door of the room prepared for Nan's new wel- 
 come. 
 
 Nan could only stand still and gaze about her with de- 
 light. All the old furniture and hangings had been re- 
 moved ; instead were light, soft chintzes, cheerful pictures, 
 furniture suited for comfort and use, a book-rack full of 
 nice volumes, a standing work-basket with everything ready 
 for use, and, finally, a little secretary with Nan's account- 
 books on it, and all sorts of pretty stationery. 
 
 While Nan was gazing with delight and wonder upon all 
 these treasures, Laura stole near her cousin, and said timidly : 
 
 "Nan, will you look at the dressing-table? I worked 
 you those things." 
 
 And Nan looked, and saw a pretty set of muslin and blue 
 silk articles, each worked with her name, and over the table 
 was the one religious suggestion of the room. This was a 
 framed text, as follows : 
 
 " Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who tres- 
 pass against us"
 
 1 88 Nan. 
 
 It was Miss Kolf who had asked Laura to buy this for 
 Nan. 
 
 Laura's eyes were still very tearful when Nan, after joy- 
 fully looking at everything, turned again to her. 
 
 " Lollie," she said, " I do let us both do it always !" 
 
 And so Nan felt she had, indeed, come " home again." 
 
 Laura did not remain at Rolf House for supper. Miss 
 
 Rolf and Nan took it together, and pleasantly discussed 
 
 Christmas, and what Nan would like to do on that day. 
 
 And afterwards, in the dear, familiar black -walnut room, 
 
 aunt and niece sat together until ten o'clock, and Miss Rolf 
 
 told Nan how her feeling that she was not upright had 
 
 grieved her, and how she rejoiced that she could claim her 
 
 again without stain of such sin. 
 
 Wisely enough, Miss Rolf did not make a heroine or a 
 martyr of Nan, for she felt that the child had not used good 
 judgment in her reticence, but she made her keenly see how 
 she regretted all injustice done to her, and certainly nothing 
 could have exceeded Miss Rolf's tenderness to her niece. It 
 seemed as if she had closed the door on the warm place in 
 her heart to open it again only for little Nan.
 
 Nan. 189 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 THE next few days passed like some happy dream in 
 Nan's life. All the joyousness and tenderness of the 
 Christmas season seemed in the very air she breathed, and 
 hours of every day were devoted to preparations for the 
 great festival. Miss Rolf had determined to make this an 
 important occasion. She issued invitations for a large party 
 in Nan's honor; and she intended to impress upon every 
 one the fact that her niece was henceforth to be considered 
 her adopted daughter the young mistress of Rolf House. 
 Nan went about with a happy light shining in her eyes, but 
 her aunt, who watched her critically, could not see that the 
 sudden change in her circumstances had made her over-ex- 
 ultant. She seemed chiefly delighted by the fact of again 
 being "at home" near to the Rolfs, first and last; able 
 again to plan for Mrs. Travers and David ; to have chats 
 with Love Blake, and to know that the approaching Christ- 
 mas would bring a "good time" for her friends, both rich 
 and humble. 
 
 Her new room was a source of the greatest delight to
 
 1 90 Nan. 
 
 her, and she never tired of sitting in the pretty easy-chairs, 
 reading the books, or admiring and using the contents of 
 her desk and work-table. And in these days it came about 
 that Laura spent most of her time on the large chintz-cov- 
 ered lounge, drawn up at one side of the wood fire; for 
 Laura's malady was increasing so fast that they all feared it 
 must settle into a hopeless spinal complaint. There was noth- 
 ing dangerous in it, but it might be that for some time she 
 would be a prisoner, and Aunt Letty, Phyllis, and Kan all 
 decided that it was best to say very little of her wrong- 
 doing to her. In the long quiet hours of her suffering and 
 weakness she was learning more than she could have done 
 in years of health and vigor; and, more than any one but 
 Nan could have believed possible, was she suffering from 
 honest shame and penitence. Nan and Joan would bring 
 their Christmas work to this bright fireside, while Laura 
 lay still, enjoying their gay talk, and for the first time learn- 
 ing to understand the sweetness and generosity of Nan's 
 nature. The younger girls asked her opinion about every- 
 thing, except some very privately executed articles which 
 were intended as surprises for Laura's own Christmas. 
 
 " I suppose," said Mrs. Heriot, on the morning of the 
 23d " I suppose we'll have to prepare for a hundred people 
 at least. Dear, dear ! it's a long time since we've had such 
 doings. And just think : first the Christmas tree and then
 
 Nan. 191 
 
 the party and then dinner the next day and well I 
 don't know how we are to get through it all 1" 
 
 Nan laughed gayly. She and Joan were in the store- 
 room tying up greens, while Mrs. Heriot was making out a 
 list to be sent to the grocer's and confectioner's. 
 
 " I know" said Nan ; " we'll get through with it perfectly 
 beautifully. We'll all be so happy and I hope," she added, 
 half sighing, " we'll all see fifty more such Christmases." 
 
 " Just hear the child !" exclaimed Mrs. Heriot. " Oh, I 
 quite forgot, my dear ; Miss Kolf wants you for a moment 
 up-stairs." 
 
 Nan darted up willingly enough, and found Miss Kolf in 
 her own room, looking very pleased, and with the kindly 
 smile Nan loved to see in her eyes and on her lips. 
 
 " See here, Nannie," she said, drawing her niece towards 
 her, " I'm going to tell you something. It was I who had 
 your Cousin Philip sent to school." 
 
 " Oh !" gasped Nan and then she gave Miss Kolf rather 
 an alarming squeeze " Oh, Aunt Letty /" 
 
 " I had it done through Mr. Field so that he might not, 
 later in life, feel under any special obligations to us. And 
 now I want to speak of your Cousin Marian. Of course 
 they are not really any kin to you ; but, after all, they gave 
 you as much as they could when you were homeless, and I 
 
 should like to do well by them." 
 
 15
 
 1 92 Nan. 
 
 A strange little wondering look had come into Nan's face. 
 " Aunt Letty," she said, suddenly, " will you tell me one 
 thing truly? What had papa done that his grandfather 
 should have cast him off ?" 
 
 Miss Kolf looked pained. " My dear," she said, slowly, 
 " he did not act openly with my father ; he had debts which 
 he tried to hide ; he was never quite frank about anything ; 
 and so, at last, it came to an open quarrel. Nan, dear, you 
 see that was what frightened me when I thought you un- 
 derstand, my darling " the old lady clasped Nan closely to 
 her side "I thought I could not live over again scenes 
 such as we used to have with him bright, lovable boy that 
 he was and that before I learned to love you too dearly I 
 would send you away." 
 
 Nan was very silent for a moment. Her father was a 
 dim memory to her, yet she could vaguely recall scenes 
 which she now understood better; times when debt seem- 
 ed to be her mother's horror, and when her father, reck- 
 lessly extravagant, would leave them alone and often 
 hungry. 
 
 "It shall never fie, Aunt Letty" Nan said, firmly. And 
 Miss Rolf understood her, and believed her child with all 
 her heart. 
 
 " And about Marian," said Aunt Letty. " I thought of 
 suggesting that if she liked to go for three years to a good
 
 Nan. 193 
 
 school I would pay the expenses I mean aU, her expenses 
 what do you think ?" 
 
 Nan's whole face brightened. " Oh, Aunt Letty !" she 
 exclaimed, " how like you ! Then we could see for ourselves 
 just what a fair chance would do for her." 
 
 " And what do you say," continued Miss Rolf, smiling, 
 "to asking her here for Christmas? I can make up my 
 mind better then." 
 
 " That would be kind, I suppose," said Nan, a little du- 
 biously ; but in a moment she was ashamed of her own hesi- 
 tation, and gave a heartier assent. 
 
 " Do you know, aunt," she said, " that nice, quiet Mrs. 
 Leigh, who taught me at Bromfield, wants to open a school 
 in Exeter, and Mrs. Grange and some other people are get- 
 ting pupils for her. Now, she knows Marian so well, why 
 wouldn't that be a good beginning?" 
 
 " Yery good," said Miss Rolf, after a moment's thought ; 
 " I might write to Mrs. Leigh about it. Now, run away, my 
 darling. I hope you and Joan are not working your fingers 
 actually to the bone." 
 
 Nan laughed, and darted off to tell Joan the last piece of 
 news. And before the next morning an answer had come, 
 accepting Miss Rolf's invitation for Marian. 
 
 Nan could imagine the satisfaction with which Marian 
 told her companions of her great good luck, but she hoped
 
 1 94 Nan. 
 
 she would be moderate in her display of bugles and bangles 
 at the Christmas party. 
 
 But Miss Kolf's thoughtfulness had gone further even 
 than Nan's. Marian was expected about two o'clock on 
 Christmas eve, and in the morning two boxes arrived from 
 Ames's, the contents of which only Nan and Miss Rolf 
 knew. One of these contained a pretty, ready-made, dark 
 silk, which would, Nan thought, fit tolerably well, and might 
 in any case be altered; and the other a perfectly simple, 
 pale -blue cashmere, so ladylike and elegant, however, that 
 Nan felt Marian would appear another being when dressed 
 in it. These articles were hung up in the wardrobe of the 
 little room near Nan's, which had been prepared for Marian's 
 reception.
 
 Nan. 
 
 CHAPTEK XXXII. 
 
 " THEEE !" exclaimed Phyllis, triumphantly, from her 
 place on a ladder in the hall at Kolf House. " There ! the 
 last bit of evergreen, thank goodness! and how does it 
 look ?" 
 
 The chorus of voices, young and old, from below declared 
 it was a perfect success. And so it was. The fine old hall 
 seemed to bloom with the freshness of evergreens and 
 flowers, and at one end the huge tree was standing behind 
 a screen, to be removed at the fitting moment after tea. 
 Half a dozen of the invited guests had arrived those who 
 were to remain over Christmas - day and Nan was now 
 anxiously waiting Marian's appearance. 
 
 The door-bell gave a quick peal, and Nan turned around, 
 her heart beating from a mixture of feelings about seeing 
 Marian. A gust of wind, a little drift of snow, and then 
 Marian's figure appeared. 
 
 Every one was very quiet while Miss Rolf, with her usual 
 courtesy, went forward and said, " How do you do, my dear?" 
 and the old lady's beautiful hand was extended and
 
 1 96 Nan. 
 
 rather boisterously by Marian. She had come here fully de- 
 termined not to be " patronized " or " snubbed ;" so, although 
 everything she saw in that first glance was rather awe- 
 inspiring, she said, with her jauntiest air, 
 
 " Well, yes, here I am, alive at least. How do you do, 
 Nan ? Putting up greens, are you ?" 
 
 And the girl glanced confidently about her, staring at 
 Phyllis on the ladder, at Joan and the boys congregated by 
 the fireplace, and at Mrs. Heriot and old Eobert, who were 
 helping carefully here and there ; finally her free gaze came 
 back to Miss Rolf, and there something in the old lady's 
 tranquil face and figure, with its air of absolute though un- 
 conscious dignity and good -breeding, seemed to check her 
 loud voice and independent manner. She stood very still. 
 
 " Will you go up-stairs, my dear, with Nan ?" said Miss 
 Rolf's finely modulated voice again. 
 
 " Oh, yes, 'm thank you, 'm." And Marian crossed the 
 hall with Nan and went up the wide, curving staircase, look- 
 ing down once in a while at the pleasantly active group 
 below, and enjoying the sense of luxury and space and 
 order about her, which seemed mingled with the delicious 
 scent of the greens. 
 
 The two girls had to pass through Nan's room, and here 
 Marian would have liked to stop and examine all the dainty 
 furnishings and ornaments within it; but the sight of Laura
 
 Nan. 
 
 197 
 
 sleeping on the sofa made Nan hurry her cousin on, and 
 into the comfortable little room assigned to her. 
 
 How to give her the dresses she hardly knew ; but while 
 Marian was busy at the mirror, taking off her hat and pull- 
 ing down her " bangs," Nan said, rather timidly, 
 
 "Marian, we thought aunt and I that perhaps you'd 
 have no time to prepare a party dress and aunt bought 
 these if you like them." 
 
 Nan swung open the wardrobe door, and Marian turned 
 around with an exclamation of delight. She felt no hesita- 
 tion about the gift. Her eyes danced as she exclaimed, 
 
 " Well, I never /" and she was not ten minutes in getting 
 her dress off, and flying into first one and then the other of 
 the two pretty dresses. And it certainly was a comfort to 
 see how much their simplicity improved her whole appear- 
 ance. 
 
 Nan left Marian with Laura when the latter awoke, and 
 went back to help with the Christmas preparations. Alto- 
 gether, it was an enchanting afternoon. The Blakes and 
 Traverses arrived early and were all comfortably ensconced 
 in the black-walnut parlor, where Mrs. Heriot had a most 
 sumptuous supper prepared for them. Little David having 
 owned to a weakness for plum roll, there was enough there 
 to satisfy a dozen of him ; and Nan flitted in and out once 
 or twice to make sure that her protdg6ea had everything
 
 1 98 Nan. 
 
 they needed for perfect . happiness and comfort. She de- 
 clared afterwards that it was equal to any picture to see 
 that table Mrs. Heriot at the head. Love at the foot, 
 and Mrs. Travers and David on either side, and between 
 them all such a sparkling array of china and glass and silver 
 as Robert was putting on the long table in the dining-room. 
 
 The supper-party in there was, to Nan, rather a formida- 
 ble one, since there were present various new relations an 
 elderly cousin, Jane Marsh, and her two quiet daughters ; a 
 tall boy cousin, who teased her all the time, named Yal 
 Paton ; and Mrs. Grange from Bromfield, and Dr. Rogers, 
 whose eyes kept twinkling at Nan; and all the College 
 Street Rolfs; and the minister, Mr. Harmen, and his deli- 
 cate young daughter. 
 
 Just before supper Laura had been declared unable to 
 come down, so Nan contrived an excuse and slipped away 
 up-stairs with a plate of very nice good things for her cousin. 
 
 She sat on the low bench by the fire, while Laura slowly 
 ate the cake and sweetmeats, so long that Laura finally ex- 
 claimed, 
 
 "There, Nan, it is half -past seven; you must go and 
 dress." 
 
 And Nan jumped up, and ran down-stairs to find Marian^ 
 That young person was engaged in a very animated con- 
 versation with Yal Paton, and she looked as if she were
 
 Nan. 
 
 199 
 
 enjoying herself thoroughly. It was a new excitement, 
 however, to go up-stairs and dress for the party. Nan 
 stayed with her to give her any help needed, and when the 
 last touches were put she could not but admit that Marian 
 looked very well, and very much a "little lady." "And 
 school," thought Nan, " will do the rest to her manners" 
 
 Nan's own toilet was speedily made. It was only a 
 simple white mull with blue ribbons; but Mrs. Heriot 
 stopped her in the corridor to make sure everything about 
 " her bairn " was right. 
 
 I cannot describe all the delights and wonders of that 
 Christmas party. First came the tree, when every one, 
 servants and all, were gathered about, and Nan distributed 
 the gifts. Of course all proved satisfactory, from the joint 
 offering of the Rolfs Nan included to Aunt Letty, of a 
 dainty blue-and-white tea-service, to little David's enormous 
 army of tin soldiers, cannon, forts, and all warlike parapher- 
 nalia. There were not wanting useful presents as well 
 Marian had a set of furs, and Love Blake a fine winter 
 jacket. As for Nan herself, she had what she prized most, 
 an exquisite gold watch, with Aunt Letty 's portrait on the in- 
 side. And then Phyllis's gift had a peculiar meaning. Nan 
 had said to Aunt Letty, when the presents were talkril 
 over: "Aunt, I do want Phyllis to have something beauti- 
 ful ;" so together they had chosen a pearl necklace just a
 
 2oo Nan. 
 
 string of beautiful pearls, from which fell little, fine-pointed, 
 glittering gold drops. 
 
 Phyllis was standing near the tree, looking very beau- 
 tiful in her white lace dress, when Nan clasped the neck- 
 lace about her slender white throat, and she did not see 
 the tears that came into her cousin's eyes. Phyllis wafl 
 thinking of how grandly she had expected to mould Nan 
 to something worthy of her new position and was it not 
 from little Nan she had learned her deepest, purest lessons? 
 
 Of course the party was a success. By nine o'clock the 
 rooms were all filled with a gay, laughing company, and the 
 younger ones best enjoyed keeping by themselves. The 
 band was stationed in the hall, and the young people danced 
 in the walnut parlor, the utmost good cheer prevailing. 
 Once in a while Nan ran up to report progress below to 
 Laura, who had her presents on her sofa, and seemed to en- 
 joy things from the distance. 
 
 It was midnight when all but th3 home party had dis- 
 persed. Nan had kept wishing Lance had been there, 
 and Phyllis said, as they all gathered about the hall -fire, 
 that she meant to write to him that very night. Marian 
 looked as if she began to see something in life better than 
 the attempt to be the most "stylish" of Mrs. Delille's 
 "young ladies;" and Joan could only "hold on" to Nan, 
 as she expressed it, declaring she was too happy to live !
 
 "NAN CLASPED THE NECKLACE ABOUT HER SLENDER WHITE THROAT."
 
 Nan. 201 
 
 So with all these contented sentiments the party sepa- 
 rated for their various rooms. Just before they went to 
 bed Marian said to Nan, with a little, half-mortified laugh, 
 
 " See here Nan, I don't think yon a bit stuck-up, as I 
 thought you'd be, and I think it was awfully good of Miss 
 Rolf to ask me." 
 
 Little as it was, it pleased Nan greatly, and made her 
 hopeful for the future. 
 
 Every one was in bed and, it might have been thought, 
 asleep, but Nan felt wide awake, after the many excite- 
 ments of the day. 
 
 It was a glorious night : although the ground was white 
 with a covering of snow, the moon silvered everything, and 
 Nan knelt in the window of her new room looking out with 
 grateful eyes upon the place she now felt to be really home. 
 She was thinking of so many things that she scarcely heard 
 any sound within, until Phyllis's step sounded just at her 
 side, and there was her oldest cousin in her dressing-wrapper, 
 and Nan welcomed her with a quickly outstretched hand. 
 
 Phyllis sat down by Nan in silence for a moment ; then 
 she said, very softly, " Nan, will you always help Laura 
 and Joan and all of us ?" 
 
 " Of course," whispered Nan ; " all I know how." 
 
 The two cousins remained silent a little while longer, and 
 then Nan said, looking out at the quiet snow in the moonlight,
 
 Nan. 
 
 " What were the words of that old Christmas hymn, 
 
 Phyllis? 
 
 'And unto us a Child was born, 
 
 Whose mark of sorrow must be worn.' 
 
 Phyllis," she added, " do you suppose we must all have 
 sorrow ?" 
 
 " Sometimes," said Phyllis. " But, Nan, dear, I think it 
 is going to be your path in life to help other people's 
 sorrows." 
 
 " If I can be good enough and wise enough," answered 
 Nan. 
 
 And then in a moment Phyllis kissed her good-night and 
 went away, after a glance at Laura, sleeping in Nan's bed. 
 
 How many changes had come, thought Phyllis, since 
 with all pride and curiosity she had gone to Mrs. Ru- 
 pert's for Nan ! Not one could have defined the child's 
 power among them ; but I think that somewhere beyond 
 the quiet starlit sky, at which Nan was gazing that Christ- 
 mas morning, One knew the gift of sweetness and truth 
 given to her had not been wasted. 
 
 And so we will leave her, hoping, if we meet her again, 
 it will be seen that Miss Rolf's trust was not an idle one. 
 
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