Once, while she was talking, she laid her hand lightly upon Nancy's shoulder, and Nancy looked up to smile. Aunt Charlotte saw that the lady was more cheerful, and also noticed that she wore Nancy's flowers. The evening passed pleasantly, and Nancy's drowsy words, just before she went to sleep, were: "I do really think I cheered her." * * * * * A few days later Mrs. Dainty invited Mrs. Fenton to be her guest during a drive over a lovely road that neither of them had yet seen. It was said to be one of the most picturesque roads in that section of the country. Mrs. Fenton accepted, and with Aunt Charlotte and Mrs. Vinton they formed a pleasant party. Dorothy and Nancy were to drive in their little phaeton, and they felt quite as important as the four ladies in the barouche. True, Mrs. Dainty owned a handsome span of bays, but was not the pony, Romeo, a beauty? The road was some distance from the Cleverton, and there were some charming places to be seen on the way, so it happened that the trip, which proved to be most enjoyable, occupied the afternoon. Mrs. Paxton had a number of letters to write, and Floretta, feeling very lonely, and wishing that she had some one to play with, climbed into a hammock, and wondered what she might do to amuse herself. "Every one but me has gone somewhere, and I wish _I_ had," she said, as she gave a smart kick that sent the hammock higher. "What's the fun of swinging alone?" she grumbled, but there was no one on the piazza to answer her, and she let the hammock sway lazily while she looked down the sunny road, and thought how strange it was that the place seemed so still. Not a leaf stirred, and Floretta's disgust increased. "Nothing in sight, not even an old hen," she said, when, way down where the road looked so narrow and distant, a little figure appeared, coming directly toward the Cleverton. She watched the approaching figure, and wondered who it might be. "'Tisn't any one I know," she thought, "and _doesn't_ she look queer?" Any one who had ever known Arabella Corryville would also have known that she always looked decidedly odd and strange, and it was Arabella who was marching steadily along the road. So determined was her tread that one might have thought that there was a band behind her playing martial music to which she was obliged to keep step. "Well, whoever she is, she's carrying an umbrella, this pleasant day," murmured Floretta; then as she came near, she added: "And wearing rubbers and a raincoat, as true as I live!" Arabella was more bundled and wrapped than at first appeared, for, as she came up the gravel walk, Floretta saw that a long veil was closely tied over her hat, and wound about her throat. From her appearance one might have thought that she expected freezing weather before night. She walked up on to the piazza, and then stood, for a moment, looking about, as if in search of some one.