"Then perhaps you will undertake some. I have no time for fancy work, at present, and I believe I must make you and Jenny Rose my deputies. What say you? Will you knit a bureau cover for me? I know you are an excellent knitter." "Oh, thank you, ma'am. I should like to do it so very much," replied Calista, with a rush of love and gratitude which brought the unusual tears very near her eyes. "Very well, that is settled. Ask Miss Jessy what you will need, and I will give you an order for the materials. But remember, I shall expect something quite out of the common, that will be a credit to both of us. Now go, or you will have no time." "Isn't she a dear?" said Anabella, as they walked away. "Indeed she is. You might say so if you were in my place. But, Belle, you have got Antoinette into a scrape." "Yes, a worse one than I meant, though she deserves it for the way she treats little Tessy. Think of her keeping the poor child out of her money all this time!" "Antoinette can't bear to part with money: all the girls know that," said Calista. "I wonder if I should be so mean if I were rich." "It is not being rich. Look at Elizabeth Howell. She hasn't a mean thing about her. Are you going to buy your cotton to-day?" "No, I must see Miss Jessy first; and, as I said, I have a message from my aunt to Mr. Settson." "Good-bye, then, till I see you again." Calista found the old gentleman alone in his office. She delivered her message, and then plunged into the subject of which her own head was full. "Mr. Settson, I should like to ask you a question, if it is not improper." "Ask it," said Mr. Settson, smiling, "and then I shall know whether it is improper or not." "It is about my grandfather's will," said Calista. "Miss Betsy told me the other day that grandfather told her he had altered his will and done justice to his son Richard and his wife. She said he told her and Miss Hannah so only two or three days before he died. I am not a child any more," said Calista. "I think I have some right to know about the affairs of my own family. There is no use in asking anything of Aunt Priscilla or Miss Druett. Miss Druett thinks I am no more than a baby, and I don't know but aunt would kill me outright if I were to say anything to her about business." Mr. Settson leaned back in his chair, took a pinch of snuff, and regarded his young visitor with a critical glance. Calista was, as I have said, a very handsome girl, and had an expression of vigorous health and strength somewhat uncommon at that time, when it was considered a mark of gentility to be "delicate." She carried herself remarkably well, and spoke with a ladylike tone and accent, and though her manner was decided, it was modest and womanly. Mr. Settson's first remark was apparently irrelevant, to say the least of it. "Take off that poke bonnet, child; I want to look at you."