“Neither can we,” said Honor, her eyes filling with tears as she spoke. “Everything is changed without him, and Aunt Sophia has been here to-day and wants to make more changes.” “Ah, your aunt has been here, has she?” exclaimed Mr. Abbott, quickly. “And what plan did she suggest?” “Why, do you know about it, and is it really true, then?” asked Honor, wonderingly. “And have you come to tell us the same thing?” “How do I know, my dear, until I hear what she has told you?” said he, with an attempt at lightness. “The most absurd thing you ever heard of,” said Katherine. “She says we must go there to live. Just fancy us living with Aunt Sophia!” “And that we are to go to boarding-school,” put in Sophy, who had seated herself on the arm of her guardian’s chair. “And that we must rent the place,” continued Honor. “Rent this place where no one has ever lived but Starrs! Just imagine what father’s feelings would have been if it had ever been suggested to him that strangers should have Glen Arden!” “Catch me going to Boston to live,” remarked Peter. “I could stand boarding-school on a pinch, but Boston, never!” Victoria said nothing, but she watched Mr. Abbott’s face. She noticed that it had become very grave. “And you wouldn’t like it?” said he. “Like it! Why, Mr. Abbott, why should we do it? Of course we don’t like it. The very idea is absurd.” They were all talking together. “Why should Aunt Sophia suggest such a preposterous arrangement?” continued Honor. “We are very much alone, it is true; but we can’t help that. I have always been in the habit of keeping house; father really had very little to do with it. Of course it is very hard to be without him, but we must make up our minds to that, and get along as best we can. We can do that better here, where every corner of the house and place is associated with him, and which he loved, than we could if we went to live with Aunt Sophia. Why, Mr. Abbott, it would simply kill us all to live with Aunt Sophia.” “Indeed it would,” added the others, with conviction. “For all that,” said their guardian, gravely, “your Aunt Sophia is very good to offer to do all this for you. I didn’t know whether she would or not. But I have known her for forty years or more, and I have always found that she did what she considered to be her duty. Trust a New England woman for that.” “But what do you mean?” asked Honor, in alarm. “Why is it her duty, Mr. Abbott? Father intended that we should live here. He left it so in his will, didn’t he? Why should Aunt Sophia suggest anything different?”