“Come in,” said Ishmael, fully expecting to see some of the refractory boy’s friends come to inquire after him.

The door opened and a very young lady, in a gray silk dress, straw hat, and blue ribbons entered the schoolroom.

Ishmael looked up, gave one glance at the fair, sweet face, serious blue eyes, and soft light ringlets, and dropped his copy-books, came down from his seat and hurried to meet the visitor, exclaiming: 

“Bee!  Oh, dear, dear Bee, I am so glad to see you!”

“So am I you, Ishmael,” said Beatrice Middleton, frankly giving her hand to be shaken.

“Bee! oh, I beg pardon!  Miss Middleton I mean! it is such a happiness to me to see you again!”

“So it is to me to see you, Ishmael,” frankly answered Beatrice.

“You will sit down and rest, Bee?—­Miss Middleton!” exclaimed Ishmael, running to bring his own school chair for her accommodation.

“I will sit down, Bee.  None of my old schoolmates call me anything else, Ishmael, and I should hardly know my little self by any other name,” said Bee, taking the offered seat.

“I thank you very much for letting me call you so!  It really went against all old feelings of friendship to call you otherwise.”

“Why certainly it did.”

“I hope your father and all the family are well?”

“All except mamma, who, you know, is very delicate.”

“Yes, I know.  They are all down here, of course?”

“No; no one but myself and one man- and maid-servant.”

“Indeed!”

“Yes; I came down to see to the last preparations, so as to have everything in order and comfortable for mamma when she comes.”

“Still ‘mamma’s right-hand woman,’ Bee!”

“Well, yes; I must be so.  You know her health is very uncertain, and there are so many children—­two more since you left us, Ishmael!  And they are all such a responsibility!  And as mamma is so delicate and I am the eldest daughter, I must take much of the care of them all upon myself,” replied the girl-woman very gravely.

“Yes, I suppose so; and yet—­” Ishmael hesitated and Bee took up the discourse: 

—­“I know what you are thinking of, Ishmael!  That some other than myself ought to have been found to come down to this uninhabited house to make the final preparations for the reception of the family; but really now, Ishmael, when you come to think of it, who could have been found so competent as myself for this duty?  To be sure, you know, we sent an upholsterer down with the new furniture, and with particular instructions as to its arrangement:  every carpet, set of curtains, and suit of furniture marked with the name of the room for which it was destined.  But then, you know, there are a hundred other things to be done, after the upholsterer has quitted the house, that none but a woman and a member of the family would know how to do—­cut glass and china and cutlery to be taken out of their cases