deep luxurious chairs and divans and the portieres were of blue satin.  The wood-work was enamelled with silver.  Out in the wide hall Persian rugs lay on the inlaid floors, tapestry cloth hid the walls.  Carved furniture stood in the niches and the alcoves.  Through the open doors of the library the guests saw walls upholstered with leather, low bookcases, busts of marble and bronze.  An old laboratory off the doctor’s study had been transformed into a dining-room, as expensive and conventional as the other rooms.  There a dainty luncheon was spread.

Miss Webster led the lakeside people up-stairs.  The many spare bedrooms had been handsomely furnished, each in a different color.  When the guests were finally permitted to enter Miss Webster’s own virgin bower their chins dropped helplessly.  Only this saved them from laughing outright.

The room was furnished as for a pampered beauty.  The walls were covered with pink silk shimmering under delicate lace.  The white enamel bed and dressing-table were bountifully draped with the same materials.  Light filtered through rustling pink.  The white carpet was sprinkled with pink roses.  The trappings of the dressing-table were of crystal and gold.  In one corner stood a Psyche mirror.  Two tall lamps were hooded with pink.

All saw the humor; none the pathos.

The doctor’s room had been left untouched.  Sentiment and the value of the old mahogany had saved it.  Miss Williams’s room was also the same little cell.  She assisted to receive the guests in a new black silk gown.  Miss Webster was clad from head to foot in English crepe, with deep collar and girdle of dull jet.

That was a memorable day in the history of the city.

Thereafter Miss Webster gave an elaborate dinner-party every Sunday evening at seven o’clock.  No patient groans greeted her invitations.  Never did a lone woman receive such unflagging attentions.

At each dinner she wore a different gown.  It was at the third that she dazzled her guests with an immense pair of diamond earrings.  At the fourth they whispered that she had been having her nails manicured.  At the fifth it was painfully evident that she was laced.  At the sixth they stared and held their breath:  Miss Webster was unmistakably painted.  But it was at the tenth dinner that they were speechless and stupid:  Miss Webster wore a blond wig.

“They can just talk all they like,” said the lady to her companion that last night, as she sat before her mirror regarding her aged charms.  “I have four millions, and I shall do as I please.  It’s the first time I ever could, and I intend to enjoy every privilege that wealth and independence can give.  Whose business is it, anyway?” she demanded, querulously.

“No one’s.  But it is a trifle ridiculous, and you must expect people to talk.”

“They’d better talk!” There was a sudden suggestion of her brother’s personality, never before apparent.  “But why is it ridiculous, I should like to know?  Hasn’t a woman the right to be young if she can?  I loved Hiram.  I was a faithful and devoted sister; but he took my youth, and now that he has given it back, as it were I’ll make the most of it.”