Alice Creighton was Col. Schuyler’s ward and the niece of the wife of Mrs. Schuyler’s half brother, the Rev. John Calvert, who lived in New York, and whose house was properly her home, though she spent much of her time at Schuyler Hill, where her education was progressing under the direction of Miss Browning, the governess. Short, fat, and chubby, with light hair and eyes and complexion, and a nose that turned up decidedly, she was not very pretty, save as young, happy girlhood is always pretty, but she was very stylish, which answered instead of beauty, and made her remarked wherever she went. Whatever was fashionable she wore in the extreme, and at the little church in Hampstead there was on Sundays a great deal of curiosity among the village girls to see the last new style, as represented by Miss Creighton. And after they saw it they copied it as far as was possible, and then found to their surprise that what they had adopted as the latest in the beau-monde, was laid aside for something later by their mirror of fashion. She expected to marry Godfrey, for the arrangement had been settled between her father, before he died, and Col. Howard Schuyler; and Alice acquiesced in it, and looked confidently forward to a time when she would have a house of her own and furnish it as no house in New York had ever yet been furnished, and keep seven servants at least, with horses and carriages, and nothing to do from morning till night but enjoy herself, and be envied in doing it. To all this grandeur Godfrey would be a very proper appendage. He was good-looking, and came from a family superior even to her own; he could be a gentleman when he chose, and would look very nicely beside her in the Park and at the opera, and when she entered the drawing-rooms on Fifth Avenue on some festive occasion. This was Miss Alice Creighton, as nearly as I can daguerreotype her at the time of which I write, while Julia Schuyler was much like her in disposition, but different in looks. Julia was tall and slender, and a brunette, with clear, olive complexion, high color, sparkling black eyes, and a quantity of glossy, black hair, of which she was very proud, and which she usually wore becomingly, let the fashion be what it might. Some people called her beautiful, but that she could never be with her wide mouth and large ears, but she certainly was handsome and bright, and could, if she chose, be very agreeable and fascinating, but, except with her equals, she did not often choose, and was known in town as a proud, haughty girl, caring only for herself and the few favored ones belonging to her circle. And yet she taught in Sunday-school, and made dresses and aprons for the poor, and esteemed herself almost a saint, because she once carried with her own hands a dish of soup to poor, old, bedridden Mrs. Vandeusenhisen, whose grandchild was called for Alice at the instigation of the mischievous Godfrey.