“Where does your marm keep her china?  I want to put this with it,” said Mrs. Nichols to Anna, who, uncertain what reply to make, looked at Carrie to answer for her.

“I reckon mother don’t want that old stuff stuck into her china-closet,” said Carrie, elevating her nose to a height wholly satisfactory to John Jr., who unbuttoned one of his waistband buttons to give himself room to laugh.

“Mortal sakes alive!  I wonder if she don’t,” returned Mrs. Nichols, beginning to get an inkling of Carrie’s character, and the estimation in which her valuables were held.

“Here’s a nice little cupboard over the fireplace; I’d put them here,” said ’Lena.

“Yes,” chimed in John Jr., imitating both his grandmother and cousin; “yes, granny, put ’em there; the niggers are awful critters to steal, and like enough you’d ’lose ’em if they sot in with marm’s!”

This argument prevailed.  The dishes were put away in the cupboard, ’Lena thinking that with all his badness John Jr., was of some use after all.  At last, tired of looking on, Anna suggested to ’Lena, who did not seem to be helping matters forward much, that the should go and be dressed up as had been first proposed.  Readily divining her sister’s intention, Carrie ran with it to her mother, who sent back word that “’Lena must mind her own affairs, and let Anna’s dresses alone!”

This undeserved thrust made ’Lena cry, while Anna declared “her mother never said any such thing,” which Carrie understood as an insinuation that she had told a falsehood.  Accordingly a quarrel of words ensued between the two sisters, which was finally quelled by John Jr., who called to Carrie “to come down, as she’d got a letter from Durward Bellmont.”

Durward!  How that name made ’Lena’s heart leap!  Was it her Durward—­the boy in the cars?  She almost hoped not, for somehow the idea of his writing to Carrie was not a pleasant one.  At last summoning courage, she asked Anna who he was, and was told that he lived in Louisville with his stepfather, Mr. Graham, and that Carrie about two months before had met him in Frankfort at Colonel Douglass’s, where she was in the habit of visiting.  “Colonel Douglass,” continued Anna, “has got a right nice little girl whose name is Nellie.  Then there’s Mabel Ross, a sort of cousin, who lives with them part of the time.  She’s an orphan and a great heiress.  You mustn’t tell anybody for the world, but I overheard ma say that she wanted John to marry Mabel, she’s so rich—­but pshaw! he won’t for she’s awful babyish and ugly looking.  Captain Atherton is related to Nellie, and during the holidays she and Mabel are coming up to spend a week, and I’ll bet Durward is coming too.  Cad teased him, and he said may be he would if he didn’t go to college this fall.  I’ll run down and see.”

Soon returning, she brought the news that it was as she had conjectured.  Durward, who was now travelling, was not going to college until the next fall and at Christmas he was coming to the country with his cousin.