Tracy Park

they might they could reach no satisfactory conclusion, and were obliged to wait for what the morning and the train might bring. The party had been a success, and Frank felt tha

me so suddenly and disturbing all their plans. They heard him moving in his room before the clock struck six, and knew he was getting himself in readiness to meet the dreaded Gretchen. Then, long before the carriage ca

crazy,' Frank said to his wife, as they dressed themselves and

there, with his Spanish cloak wrapped around him, he stalked up and down the long platform for more

ome one to alight, but nobody appeared and the expression of

come. Where do y

xt train, may be,' was John's repl

ome as fast as you can. This disappointment has brought that heat to my head

ap was the best, and Bur

d in the course of half an hour he had interviewed both Burchard

g until it was spoiled, and the cook's temper was spoiled, too, and wh

e is

go and meet her,' was Arthur's reply, as he passed up the sta

nd gone to their lessons, and Arthur had said that he never took anything in the morning excep

ning everywhere, and nowhere to a greater extent than in Arthur's room, or rather the rooms which he had appropriated to himself, and into which he had had all his numerous boxes and trunks brought, so that he could open them at his le

measuring their length, and breadth, and height, and the distance between the windows. Then he inspected the wing on that side of the house, and, going into the yard, looked the building over from all points, occasionally marking a few lines on the paper he held in his hand. Before noon every room in the house, except the one where Dolly lay sick with a headache had been visited and examined minutely, while Frank watched him nervously, wondering if he would think they had gr

on account of any obnoxious odor, but because of this unreasonable meddling with what she considered her own affairs. If things were to go on in this way, she said to the house-ma

he pointed to a large black trunk, 'I think this has the dress patterns and shawls I brought for you, girls; for though I did not know you personally, I knew that women

wnership, as if he had assumed the mastership. And he had. Everything was his, and he knew it, and Frank knew it, too,

nnounced his intentions in part, but not until Frank

in and look over the books. I believe you will find them straight, and hope you wi

gether pleasantly and you do not interfere with my plans. I am going to take the three south rooms on the second floor for my own. I shall put folding-doors, or rather a wide arch between two of them, making them almost like one, and these I shall fit up to suit my own taste. In the smaller and middle room, where I slept last night, I shall have a large bow window, with shelves for books in the spaces between and beneath, and by the sides of the windows. I got the idea in a villa a little way out of Florence. Opposite this bow window, on the other side of the room, I shall have niches in the wall and corners for statuary, with shelves for books above and below. I have some beautiful pieces of marble from Florence and Rome. The Venus de Milo, Apollo Belvidere, Nydr

ere was a moisture in his eyes when he at last l

ou say Gre

eye changed to one of wearines

ay be occupied with the carpenters, Burchard and Belknap, who were coming to talk with me about the changes I purpose to make, and which I wish commenced immediately. It is a rule of mine that when I am to do a thing, to do

en,' while his eyes again grew soft and tender, with a far-away look in

read rather than a romance. So far as he could judge, his brother had no intention of routing h

y fond of Gretchen,

oing to atone, and this suite of rooms is for her. I mean to make her a very queen, and dress her in satin a

aid, determined by adroit questioning to l

ined me,' wa

seasick?' Fr

ld her hand, and if I tried to touch even her hair, she always moved away to the other side of

at the Brevoort in N

h me at B

n the

d in the

left he

rather excitedly, just as a sharp ring at the bell announced the arrival of Burchard and Belknap, the leading carpenters of the to

ohn returned alone, mentally avowing to himself that he would not be sent on a fool's errand a third time; but five o'clock found him there again with the same result. Gretchen did not

he gave them, while Dolly's headache had been wholly cured at sight of the exquisite diamonds which her husband brought to her

taires, large and brilliant, and Dolly's delight knew no bounds as she took the dazzling stones in her hands and examined them carefully. Diamond were the jewels of all others which she coveted, but

ous night at sight of Harold until about six o'clock, when Tom, his ten-year-old nephew, came rushing into the li

uck in her shawl, and she couldn't find it, and Lucy saw him fumbling with the things, and he denies it up hill and down, and

ing Arthur bounded toward him, and seizing him by the

could ever be a thief, and if you say that again, or even insinuate it to

well as he could, with his head bobbing forward and b

'll have the young dog arrested, t

hur's black eyes, which he fas

mean, sir? Will yo

early to the doin's; fust ones, in fact, for when your invite says half past seven it means it, I take it. Wall, we was here on time, and Mary J

g etiquette. Go on with the pin a

b'lieve in shams, and haint sense the day I quit boatin' and hauled ther 'Liza Ann up inter my back yard. Well, she l

out to pounce upon its prey, and he felt himself growing cold with s

evidence, and I'll get one of St. Claire afore to-morrow night. I told 'em so, the widder and the boy, who was as brassy as you please, and faced me down and said he never seen the pin, nor knowed there was one; while she-wall, I swow, if she didn't start round lively for a

lly roused, and with a bound toward Peterkin he opened the door, and, in a

n for the insult offered them by your vile accusations. If it were not for soiling my hands, I would throw you down the steps,' he conti

Tracy tribe, declaring them but a race of upstarts, no better than he was, and saying he would yet be even with them, and make them feel the heft of his powerful disapprobation. Whatever else he said was not heard, for Arthur shut the doo

half-past. Please tell John to have the c

sive. He was no longer master there-unless-unless-he scarcely dared whisper to himself what; but when the ca

y, and possibly we shal

resence in the house had not added to her comfort. 'Of course he is crazy, and ought to be

ire to-morrow and find out the pro

ile a face, the loveliest he had ever seen, looked reproachfully at him, with tears in the soft blue eyes, and a pleading pa

p in bed, listening intently to sounds which came from

hear that? There's a burglar in the ho

y, and looking out, saw his brother, wrapped in a long dressing-gown, with a candle in his hand, opening one window after another until the hal

an awful smell somewhere, and traced it to the hall, which you see I am airin

laire entered his office, he found Frank Tracy waiting there to consult him with regard

lunatic asylum at Worcester, where a beautiful young girl, his wife, had been confined. She was dead now, and the Florida roses were growing over her

she became dangerous,' he had often said to himself, and he sai

does the same. Her nose is over the registers half the time in winter to see if any gas is escaping from the furnace. And as to this Gretchen, it is po

, where he had stopped, or if there had been any one in his company on the ship, which was still lying in the dock at New York. But there no one had been with him. Arthur

red him, and the carriage went to meet her, until at last there seemed to dawn upon his mind the possibility of a mistake, and when the carriage had made

id not

to join me in Liverpool, and I thought she did and was with me on the ship and in the train, but sometimes, when my head is so hot, I get things mixed, and am not sure but-' and he looked wistfully in his companion's face, while

?' Mr. St. Claire

ht of so many crazy people made me worse, and if I had staid I should have been mad as the maddest of them. As it was, I forgot almost everything that ever happened, and fancied I was an Austrian. As soon as I came out I was

hen a golden-haired girl had begged him to save her from iron bars and bolts, Mr. St. Claire assure

hen any more,' he said. 'I woul

f cunning came into Arth

rd the carriage, while Mr. St. Claire look

a mad house, and I should oppose his being sent there