If the town could have overheard Clem scolding the lady with frank irritation in his voice,—­as I chanced to do once or twice,—­had it beheld his scowl as he raged, “Miss Cahline, yo’ sho’ly gittin’ old ‘nuff to know betteh’n that.  I suttinly do wish yo’ Paw was alive an’ yeh’bouts.  Ah git him afteh yo’ maghty quick.  Now yo’ jes’ remembeh Ah ain’t go’n’ a’ have no sech doin’s!”—­if it could have noted the quailing consternation of the mistress at these moments, it might have been puzzled; but of such phenomena it never knew.  It was aware only that Miss Caroline treated Clem with a despotic severity, issuing commands to him as from a throne of power and in tones of acrid authority that were the envy of all housekeepers among us who kept “hired girls.”

Even Mrs. Potts, long before the arrival of Miss Caroline, had despaired of teaching Clem to make something of himself.  He had refused to subscribe for a “Compendium,” and her cordial assurance that he was, by the law of the land, both a man and a brother, did not even mildly elate him.  Mrs. Potts was soon in a like despair regarding Miss Caroline, whom she regarded as too frivolous ever to make anything of herself.  These two ladies, indeed, were widely apart.  Perhaps I can intimate the extent of their unlikeness by revealing that Mrs. Potts, early in our acquaintance, had observed of me that I was not serious enough; whereas Miss Caroline was presently averring to my face that I was entirely too serious.  These judgments of myself seemed to contrast the ladies informingly.

The impression that Miss Caroline was frivolous—­or even worse—­became current the day after her arrival in Little Arcady.  Arrayed in a lavender silk dress of many flounces, with bonnet beribboned gayly beyond her years, shod in low walking shoes of heel iniquitously high, a toe minute and shining and an instep ornate to an unholy degree, bearing a slender gold-tipped staff of polished ebony to assist theatrically in her progress, and bestowing placid, patronizing looks to right and left, she had flounced into Main Street, followed ceremoniously by her black chattel, himself set up with a palpable and shameless pride in his degradation, saluting stiffly and with an artificial grandeur those whom he would otherwise have greeted with the unstudied ease of long association.

This procession regaled both Main and Washington streets, where Miss Caroline visited our shops to make inconsiderable purchases and many friends.  It was a function the pleasant data whereof I was not long in collecting.

Her first conquest was Chester Pierce, our excellent hardware merchant, whom she commissioned to make a needed repair to her range.  It was a simple business matter, and Chester Pierce is a simple business person of plain manners.  But as he slouched comfortably upon his counter and listened to Miss Caroline’s condescending exposition of her needs, he became sensible of a strange influence stealing upon him.  By degrees