Tracy Park

ated which Arthur had given her, there was no one to receive the strangers except the cook and the house-maid, and as Mrs. Tracy

them had been at the park on the occasion of Mrs. Tracy's first visit there, many rumors concerning her had reached them, and she would scarcely have recognized herself could she have heard the remarks of which she was the subject. That she had work

it had been, but the cook and the house-maid believed it, and passed sundry

ouse was in perfect order, and so much larger and handsomer than she had thought it to be, that she felt bewildered and embarrassed, and said 'Yes 'em,' and 'No, ma'am,' to Martha, t

hen, she repeated to the cook and the coachman, with sundry embellishments of her own, the particulars of the dinner, amid peals of laughter a

a little less in awe of her servants, began to show a disposition to know by personal observation what was going on in the kitche

rt families outside, and the old woman who came so often to the basem

k out of the house. Her self-respect, she said, would not allow her to stay with a woman who knew just how much coal was burned, how much butter was used, and how much bread was thro

, cooking her own dinner, and eating it when and where she liked-in the kitchen mostly, as that kept the flies from the dining-room, and saved he

refused to listen. Economy was a part of her nature, and besides that she meant to show them that she was perfectly in

Mrs. Atherton from Brier Hill, or Miss Hastings from Collingwood. She had seen both the last named ladies at church and had a nod from Mrs. Atherton, and that was all the recognition she had r

g straight dawn, for she was minus hoops, which in those days were worn quite large; her sleeves were rolled above her elbows, and, as a protection against the juice of the berries, she wore a huge apron made of sacking. In this garb, and with no thought of bein

ds upon her apron. 'Some peddler or agent, I dare say. Why c

time, as if in a hurry-she started for' the door in no very amiable frame of mind, for peddlers were her abomination. Something ailed th

k door: I cann

over, and were hissing and sputtering on the hot stove, raising a cloud of smoke so dense that she did not see the

. Tracy. I hope I

ed in the coolest and daintiest of morning costumes, with a jaunty French

e stood staring at her visitor, who, perfectly

me, Mrs. Tracy, for th

s time Dolly had recovered herself a little, an

l buy everything and give to everything because Arthur did. I am doing my own work, you see. Come into the parlor;' and she led the way into

at once closed the shutters, saying, apologetically, that she did not believe in fading the carpets, if they were not her

stains on her hands and face. Grace knew nothing by actual experience of canning berries, or of aprons made of sacking, or of bare arms, except it were of an evening when they showed white and fair against her satin gown, with bands of gold and precious sto

r been her husband's at all, it was given to one who, though he cared for it once, did not prize it now, for, with all the intensity of his noble nature, Richard Harrington, of Collingwood; loved the beautiful girl whom, years ago, he had taken to his home as his child, and whom, it was said, he was to marry. But if the belief that the love she once refused and which she would fain recover was lost to her forever rankled in her breast, Grace never made

as a neighbor and the sister-in-law of Arthur Tracy,' And so at last she came, partly out of compliment and partly on business, into which last she plunged at once. She was going to the mountains with Mr

of her from her last employer,' she said: 'and, if you do not m

an, because she objected to the amount of coal burned, and bread thrown away, and time consumed at the table, besides turning down the gas in the kitchen when she thought it too light, to say nothing of turning it off at the m

whole it was better for them all t

d do everything,' Mrs. Atherton continued. 'My dear Mrs. Tracy, you can never stand it in a house like this, and Mr. Arthur would not like it if he knew. Why he kept as many as six servants, and sometimes more. Pray let me advise you, and commend to you a good girl; who

but Mrs. Tracy, though annoyed, was not angry, and consented to receive the girl who had l

reawaking in her the germ of that ambition to be somebody which she had felt so often when a girl, and which now was to bud and blossom, and bear fruit a hundred fold. She would take the girl, and from her learn the ways of the world as presented at Brier Hill. Sh

Frank went home to his dinner he noticed something in her manner which he could not understa

Mrs. Atherton's call at once, and take a card and turn down one corner or the other, I don't know which, but this girl of hers can tell you. Pump her dry as a powder horn; find out what the quality do, and then do it, and not bother about the expense. I am going in for a good time, and don't mean to work either. I told Colvin this morning that I thought I ought to draw a salary of abou

in Langley, but the next day they had dinner in the dining-room, and were waited upon b

to clear the table preparatory to the dessert, but she repented the speech when she saw the

ts to take every darned thing off the table and tip it over to boot, let her do it. If

h to see to in this great house,' Dol

nd to do that. He said so in his letter. You are altogether too economical. I've told you so a hundred times, and now there is no nee

tried to do at Tracy Park: all except staying out of the kitchen. That, from her nature, she could not and would not do. Consequently she was constantly

own upon one who had been housekeeper where she was now mistress, and whose daughter's good name was under a cloud, as there were some who did not believe that Harold Hastings had ev

never crossed the threshold of her old home again until the March win

was very proud, but she was poor, too, and as the price per week which Frank offered her was four times as much as she could earn by sewing, she consented at last and went as nurse to the si

Hastings, the young lady from Collingwood, who had married a Mr. St. Claire instead of her guardian, she felt that her position was assured, and from that time her progress was onward and upward until the October morning, ten years later, when our story proper opens, and we see her standing upon th

. But she was far too great a lady for that. She dressed in silk and satin every day, and drove in her handsome carriage, with her driver and footman in tall hats and long coats. She was thoroughly up in etiquette, and did not ne

they were the Tracys of Tracy Park, and entitled to due respect from their inferiors; and Tom, the boy of ten and a half, had profited by her teaching, and was the veriest little bra

arranged to have the news communicated to his friends at once. After this letter nothing had been heard from him for more than two years, until the morning when his telegram came and so greatly disturbed the mental equilibrium of Mr. Frank Tracy that for an hour or more he sat staring into the street in a bewildered kind of way, wondering what would be the result of his brother's return, and if he should be required to give up the investments he had made from the exorbitant sum he had charged for looking after the place. Once he thought he would