“we have come after miss hattie butler, mr. w——,” said lizzie, after shaking hands with him.

“our dear aunt louisa is ever so much better to-day, and her first wish this morning was to see her. but the doctor thought she had better wait until afternoon, until she grew stronger, and so we waited till after lunch, and then we had to come. our aunt would give us no rest.”

“that’s so. do you know, mr. w——, though she has not positively said so in so many words, i believe our good aunt means to give us a new cousin? i feel sure she means to adopt miss hattie as her daughter.”

“hardly against the will of the latter, who has a mind of her own, and few minds stronger or better balanced,” said mr. w——.

“but this morning,” said lizzie, “when i went early to her bedside, she was murmuring in her sleep, and i heard the words, ‘my precious daughter,’ distinctly. and when she awoke, i knew she had been thinking of miss butler, for she asked the very first thing if she was in the house.”

“that certainly bears out your idea,” said mr. w——. “i will go and call miss hattie, and you can state your wishes to her. she will go with you, i know.”

“lizzie, he is just one of the best fellows that ever lived!” cried frank. “isn’t it a pity he is only a book-binder after all?”

[131]

“i don’t know as that sets him back in my estimation one bit,” said lizzie. “he is handsome, manly, and well-bred.”

frank looked at his hitherto aristocratic sister with eyes of open wonder. what he would have said had not mr. w—— come in that moment with hattie, we do not know, for his lips were opened to utter a reply when the book-binder and his fair employee entered the office.

then frank had no eyes but for the latter, no thought, for the moment, of any one else.

“dear miss hattie!” was all that lizzie said, as she ran up to the poor bindery-girl, threw her arms around her neck, and kissed her again and again.

frank would have given his team of fast horses, anything he had in the world, if he could have used those very words and given the same salute, more especially if he could have got the return his sister did.

but he had to content himself by shaking her hand, which he pressed quite warmly, as he said:

“i am glad to see you looking so well to-day, miss hattie, after the fright our aunt gave you last night.”

“thank you!” said hattie, kindly.

but frank noted, with some chagrin, that she did not return the pressure of his hand.

“we have come to carry you home with us to see aunt louisa,” continued lizzie. “she asked after you the first thing this morning, and the doctor said as she grew stronger to-day it would do her real good to have a visit from you.”

“then, if mr. w—— can spare me, i certainly cannot refuse to go,” said hattie, with a smile.

“you certainly can be spared for such a purpose,[132] miss hattie,” said mr. w——. “your time could not be better spent than in comforting those who need comfort.”

hattie saw the hidden meaning of those words, and she would have comforted him had it been in her power. but she had made a decision in his case which she could not change.

mr. w—— now escorted his visitors and hattie down stairs to the carriage which waited, and when the two girls sat side by side there, one resplendent in silk, laces, and diamonds—the other in her ever neat, well-fitting and well-made shop dress of ten-cent calico, without an ornament of any kind, he compared them in his mind, and his heart still told him the shop-girl, beautiful, but poor, was superior to all others in the world—his heart’s first and last choice above all others.

and he stood there and watched them and the carriage till it turned the corner, and then he went back, with a weary sigh, to his business.

as the carriage rattled on over the paved streets, so lizzie’s tongue rattled, too, while frank’s eyes only were busy studying out the marvelous beauty of the girl to whom his sister talked.

“do you know, dear hattie,” said she, “that i believe we are to be cousins—real cousins. for if aunt louisa adopts you as her daughter you will be my cousin—my dear, dear cousin, will you not?”

“i fear i shall never be more than a dear and true friend to you, miss lizzie,” said hattie, kindly, yet gravely. “your aunt, perhaps, wishes to be as good to me as you indicate, but i can never yield to her kind desire.”

“but, hattie, darling, you don’t know her yet. she is so good! never did a kinder heart throb than[133] hers. she is the counterpart of my blessed mother, who died on earth but lives in heaven. she has seen many sorrows—we know not all, for she was abroad with her first husband for years, and we heard he was a bad man. she married him against the will of her parents and friends, but her last husband, whom she married because they all wanted her to after the first one died, was a very good man, and he left her over a million of dollars in her own right. we never talk with her about her first marriage. she does not like it. but she often speaks of mr. emory herself, and his praise never hurts her feelings. we all liked him very much.”

hattie was a good listener. she never interrupted lizzie’s narrative with a single question. and a real good listener is a “rarity,” as mr. barnum said when he found the “what is it.”

“now you will think it over, will you not, if aunt louisa proposes that you shall be her daughter, as i know she will?” said lizzie, stealing her arm coaxingly about hattie’s waist. “don’t say no, dear—at least not at once. for her sake soften a refusal, if it must come.”

“i will do everything i can in honor and justice to myself to make your good, dear aunt happy,” said hattie.

“you darling! i knew you would!”

and lizzie, caring not a jot that they were driving up the fifth avenue, passing and meeting occupied carriages all the time, kissed hattie over and over again.

and poor frank sat there and saw their red lips meet, and he wished he could be lizzie, if only for a minute.

but the sweetest moments must have their end.[134] the carriage drew up before the legare mansion, and its occupants were soon within its stately walls.

mr. legare met them at the door.

“this kindness is truly gratifying, miss butler,” said he to our heroine. “my sister is yet quite nervous, but the doctor is confident your visit will be a benefit to her. she is anxious to see you. i left her but a moment ago, and she sent me from her chamber to see if you had come. she wishes to see you alone for a little while. i can almost guess the cause of this wish, but i will not anticipate it to you.”

then, as soon as lizzie had taken her bonnet and shawl, hattie went to the chamber of mrs. emory.