This formality devolved naturally upon Honor and Katherine, but at the last moment Victoria announced that she should accompany them, so anxious was she to see the music-room and the other interesting things which were sure to be there, as well as the beautiful Miss Madison herself, of whom Katherine had talked so enthusiastically ever since she had met her the day before. The three sisters made ready for their call, and before long were climbing the steep hill. They were about to ring the bell, when the door was opened for them by Miss Madison. “I saw you coming,” she said, “and I thought I would let you in myself. How good of you to come so soon. I am delighted to see you. Now you must tell me which is Honor and which is Katherine and which Victoria,” she added as she shook hands with each. “You see I know all your names though I don’t know you apart. Come into the house, and I will send for my mother.” They went into the parlor, and as they did so a gentleman rose and came forward. He was a good-looking young man with blue eyes like Miss Madison’s, though his hair was darker than hers. Before the girls had time to wonder who he was their hostess introduced him. “This is my brother Roger,” said she. “Do you think he will ‘do for Peter’?” she added, laughing as she turned to Katherine. “Oh,” exclaimed Katherine, wanting to laugh herself, but fearing that Honor would be shocked; “what must you have thought of me yesterday! We were told that he was a boy.” “So I am in a great many respects,” said Roger Madison. “I’m sure that I’ll ‘do for Peter.’” In the meantime, what had become of Victoria? She had paused for a moment in the doorway and then had turned and disappeared. Her one thought was flight, and like a flash she ran down the avenue and was lost to sight beneath the brow of the hill. Miss Madison’s brother was the man who had bought the etching! What would Honor say? CHAPTER XI. VICTORIA DECIDES TO KEEP IT SECRET. WHAT would Honor say? This was Victoria’s chief thought as she rushed headlong down the hill, not pausing until she had reached the safe shelter of their own place. There beneath one of the old trees she found a rustic bench, and sinking down upon it, quite breathless from her run, she tried to consider calmly the situation. What would Honor say? She who had hoped that they might never see the young man again because in her eyes the affair had been so mortifying! And so it had been, Victoria said to herself. What would Mr. Madison himself think when he learned that one of his new neighbors was actually the girl whom he had encountered in a Boston picture store peddling her wares, and of whom he had bought something purely as an act of charity? Victoria, looking back at the occurrence, felt perfectly confident that it was chiefly owing to his good nature that he had bought the etching. [Picture: “There, beneath one of the old trees, she found a rustic bench”]