Rhoda could not have been more surprised if one of the telegraph-poles had spoken to her. The train started on, and she showed the money to her father, saying,— "Who ever would have thought of Mr. Weightman's making me such a present?" "He can be liberal enough when he is in the humour," said Mr. Bowers. "Put the money away; and when you get to 'The Home,' give it to Miss Carpenter to take care of for you. There is another bill to keep it company." "Just think!" exclaimed Rhoda. "I have really ten dollars of my own. I mean to buy some wool and make baby a nice blanket." "You will have enough to do without making blankets for baby," said Mr. Bowers. "There! Don't talk to me. I want to read my paper." Mr. Bowers and Rhoda reached Milby in good time, and took a carriage for "The Home." "The street looks just as it used to," said Rhoda. "There is the very shop where Mrs. Green used to send me to buy her snuff. And this is 'The Home,' I am sure; but how much larger they have made it!" "Yes, they built a new wing last fall. Come, child, don't stand staring in the street." The front hall and reception room looked just as Rhoda remembered them. There was the little table with the register book, the little old, rattling, yellow-keyed piano, and the coloured chalk landscape with the heron standing on one leg in the foreground, just as he did when Rhoda used to wish he would down his other foot and walk away. There was the same pervading smell of roast beef; and when Miss Carpenter came in to welcome them, Rhoda would have said she had on the very same soft gray merino gown and lace handkerchief in which she had last seen her. The good lady welcomed Rhoda with all possible kindness, but looked rather surprised at the sight of her large trunk and travelling-bag. Rhoda wondered if she had not expected them, but her wonder was cut short by Mr. Bowers rising and asking to see Miss Carpenter in another room for a few minutes. Rhoda was left alone in the little reception room, where she waited till she was tired. Her father and the matron went into the room opposite, and presently Miss Carpenter came out, and returned with an elderly lady whose face Rhoda seemed faintly to remember. There was another long interval of waiting, which Rhoda endeavoured to shorten by looking out of the window, and by reading the daily paper which lay on the table. Miss Carpenter had closed the reception room door passing, but after a long hour she heard first the door opposite and then the hall door open and shut; and glancing out, she saw her father leaving the house, apparently in a great hurry. She started forward to speak to him, but before she could reach the door, he had hailed a passing omnibus, and jumping in, was out of sight directly. "How very strange!" thought Rhoda. But her meditations were cut short by the opening of the parlour door and the voice of the lady whom Miss Carpenter had called saying emphatically,—