Roger had written to Frank, congratulating him upon his approaching marriage, but declining to be present at the wedding. He wished to know as little as possible of the affairs at Millbank, and tried to dissuade Hester from her visit to Mrs. Slocum. But Hester _would_ go, and three days before the great event came off she was installed in Mrs. Slocum’s best chamber, and had presented that worthy woman with six bottles of canned fruit, ten yards of calico, and an old coat of Aleck’s, which, she said, would cut over nicely for Johnny, Mrs. Slocum’s youngest boy. After these presents, Hester felt that she was not “spunging,” as she called it, and settled herself quietly to visit, and to reconnoitre, and watch the proceedings at Millbank. And there was enough to occupy her time and keep her in a state of great excitement. The house had been painted brown, and Hester inveighed against that, and scolded about the shrubbery, which had been removed, and cried a little over the trees which, at Bell’s instigation, had been cut down to open a finer view of the river from the rooms appropriated to the bride. Into these rooms Hester at last penetrated, as well as into all parts of the house. Mrs. Walter Scott had gone to Boston, and Frank had gone with her. Hester saw them as they drove by Mrs. Slocum’s in their elegant new carriage, with their white-gloved colored driver on the box, and she had represented her blood as “bilin’ like a caldron kettle, to see them as had no business a-ridin’ through the country and spending Roger’s money.” She knew where they were going, and that the coast was clear at Millbank, and with Mrs. Slocum, who was on good terms with the housekeeper, she went there that afternoon and saw “such sights as her eyes never expected to see while she lived.” “I mean to write to Magdalen and let her know just what carryin’s on there is here,” she said to Mrs. Slocum; and she commenced a letter that night, telling Magdalen where she was, and what she was there for, and not omitting to speak of the “things” she had brought, and which would pay for what little she ate for a week or two.