“There, there, dearie,” she said, soothingly. “It’s goin’ to be all right, you’ll see. I can’t leave the office now, it’s almost time for the noon mail, but I’ll run up to-morrow mornin’ and see how you are gettin’ along.” Then, catching sight of the Gifford face upon which was written eager and consuming curiosity, her own expression changed. “Come, come, you two!” she snapped, addressing her brother and Varunas. “What are you standin’ there for, with your mouths open? Help her into the carriage, why don’t you. Varunas, you take her up to Cap’n Foster’s; and mind you drive carefully.” During the short journey to the Townsend mansion Mr. Gifford, whose curiosity was by this time seasoned with a faint suspicion of the astonishing truth, tried more than once to engage his passenger in conversation, but with no satisfactory results. Esther’s replies were brief and monosyllabic. She sat crouched on the rear seat of the democrat, avoided his eye when he turned to look at her, and, as he told Nabby afterward, she hardly as much as said ay, yes or no the whole way. They turned in on the broad drive and stopped at the portico shading the side door. Foster Townsend opened that door himself and came out. “Well, well, here you are!” he said, heartily. “Come right in. Varunas, take that trunk and the bag upstairs. Nabby will show you where to put them.” He helped his niece to alight and conducted her into the house. Mr. Gifford shouldered the trunk, it was not a big one, and marched through the little hall, across the dining room and up the back stairs. His wife was awaiting him on the landing. “Put it in the pink room,” she ordered. “And fetch up whatever else there is and put that there, too.” Varunas deposited the trunk in the pink room as directed. Then he turned to his wife. “What in time--?” he demanded, in a whisper. Nabby nodded impressively. “I guess you may well say more’n that when you know. She’s comin’ here to _live_.” Varunas stared. Then he slapped his knee. “I guessed pretty nigh as much,” he declared. “The minute I see her and Reliance come out of that house, I-- But you don’t really mean it, do you, Nabby? You don’t mean she’s comin’ here to stay--right along?” Nabby nodded again. “That’s just what I mean,” she replied. “Cap’n Foster told me so a minute or so after you left to go get her. Yes, she’s comin’ to stay right along--or wrong along--the good Lord only knows which it’ll turn out to be.... Well!” fervently, “I thought I’d expected ’most everything, but I never expected _this_. Freeling’s girl! And Eunice Clark’s girl, which is sayin’ a lot more! In _this_ house!... There, there! go get the rest of her dunnage and hurry up about it. I’ve got somethin’ else to do besides listen to your ‘by times.’ You can say them later on. You won’t be the only one sayin’ ’em. How folks will talk!”