In this chapter it may not be out of place to introduce an individual who, though not a very important personage, is still in some degree connected with our story. On the night when Durward and his father were riding home from Frankfort, the family at Maple Grove, with the exception of grandma, were as usual assembled in the parlor. John Jr. had returned, and purposely telling his mother and Carrie whom he had left with ’Lena, had succeeded in putting them both into an uncomfortable humor, the latter secretly lamenting the mistake which she had committed in suffering ’Lena to stay with Mabel. But it could not be remedied now. There was no good reason for calling her home, and the lady broke at least three cambric-needles in her vigorous jerks at the handkerchief she was hemming. A heavy tread upon the piazza, a loud ring of the bell, and Carrie straightened up, thinking it might possibly be Durward, who had called on his way home, but the voice was strange, and rather impatiently she waited. “Does Mr. John Livingstone live here?” asked the stranger of the negro who answered the summons. “Yes, sir,” answered the servant, eyeing the new comer askance. “And is old Miss Nichols and Helleny to hum?” The negro grinned, answering in the affirmative, and asking the young man to walk in. “Wall, guess I will,” said he, advancing a few steps toward the parlor door. Then suddenly halting, he added, more to himself than to the negro, “Darned if I don’t go the hull figger, and send in my card as they do to Boston.” So saying, he drew from his pocket an embossed card, and bending his knee for a table, he wrote with sundry nourishes, “Mr. Joel Slocum, Esq., Slocumville, Massachusetts.” “There, hand that to your _boss_,” said he, “and tell him I’m out in the entry.” At the same time he stepped before the hat-stand, rubbing up his oily hair, and thinking “Mr. Joel Slocum would make an impression anywhere.” “Who is it, Ben ?” whispered Carrie. “Dunno, miss,” said the negro, passing the card to his master, and waiting in silence for his orders. “Mr. Joel Slocum, Esq., Slocumville, Massachusetts,” slowly read Mr. Livingstone, wondering where he had heard that name before. “Who?” simultaneously asked Carrie and Anna, while their mother looked wonderingly up. Instantly John Jr. remembered ’Lena’s love-letter, and anticipating fun, exclaimed, “Show him in, Ben—show him in.”