She could not say “homesick,” lest she should break out again into a fit of crying, but Mrs. Noah understood her, and remembering her own experience when first she went from home, she involuntarily stooped to kiss the pure, white forehead of the girl, who henceforth was sure of one champion, at least, at Aikenside. The dinner was a success, so far as Maddy was concerned. Not a single mistake did she make, though her cheeks burned painfully as she felt the eyes of the polite waiter fixed so often upon her face, and fancied he might be laughing at her. But he was not, and thanks to the kind-hearted Guy, he thought of her only with respect, as one who was his superior and must be treated accordingly. Knowing how different everything was at Aikenside from that to which she had been accustomed, Guy, with the thoughtfulness natural to him, had taken the precaution of speaking to each of the servants concerning Miss Clyde, Jessie’s teacher. As he could not be there himself when she first came, it would devolve upon them more or less to make it pleasant for her by kind, civil attentions, he said, hinting at the dire displeasure sure to fall on any one who should be guilty of a misdemeanor in that direction. To Paul, the coachman, he had been particular in his charges, telling him who Maddy was, and arguing that from the insolence once given to the grandfather the offender was bound to be more polite to the grandchild. The carriage was to be at her and Jessie’s command, and Paul was never to refuse a reasonable request to drive the young ladies when and where they wished to go, while a pretty little black pony, recently broken to the saddle for Agnes, was to be at Miss Clyde’s service, if she chose to have it. As Guy’s slightest wish was always obeyed, Maddy’s chances for happiness were not small, notwithstanding that she felt so desolate and lonely when the doctor left her, and watched him with a swelling heart until he was lost to view in the deepening twilight. Feeling that she must be homesick, Mrs. Noah suggested that she try the fine piano in the little music room. “Maybe you can’t play, but you can drum ‘Days of Absence,’ as most girls do,” and opening the piano she bade Maddy “thump as long as she liked.”