"Don't see it--the satisfaction," retorted Kate, and her aunt dropped the subject where it was. The dishes finished and the kitchen put to rights, the two women started for the chambers and the bed-making. Kate's protests were airily waved aside by the energetic little woman who promptly went to pillow-beating and mattress-turning. "How fresh and sweet the air smells!" cried Mrs. Howland, sniffing at the open window. "Lilacs," explained Kate concisely. "Hm-m--lovely!" "Think so? I don't care for the odor myself," rejoined Kate. The other shot a quick look from under lowered lids. Kate's face expressed mere indifference. The girl evidently had not meant to be rude. "You don't like them?" cried Mrs. Howland. "Oh, I do! My dear, you don't half appreciate what it is to have such air to breathe. Only think, if you were shut up in a brick house on a narrow street as I am!" "Think!" retorted Kate, with sudden heat. "I 'd like to do something besides 'think'! I 'd like to try it!" "You mean you'd like to leave here?--to go to the city?" "I do, certainly. Aunt Ellen, I'm simply sick of chicken-feeding and meal-getting. Why, if it was n't for keeping house for father I 'd have been off to New York or Boston years ago!" "But your home--your friends!" "Commonplace--uninteresting!" declared Kate, disposing of both with a wave of her two hands. "The one means endless sweeping and baking; the other means sewing societies, and silly gossip over clothes, beaux, and crops." Mrs. Howland laughed, though she sobered instantly. "But there must be something, some one that you enjoy," she suggested. Kate shook her head wearily. "Not a thing, not a person," she replied; adding with a whimsical twinkle, "they're all like the dishes, Aunt Ellen,--bound to accumulate crumbs and scraps, and do nothing but clutter up." "Oh, Kate, Kate," remonstrated Mrs. Howland, "what an incorrigible girl you are!" As she spoke her lips smiled, but her eyes did not--there was a wistful light in their blue depths that persistently stayed there all through the day as she watched her niece. At ten, and again at half-past, some neighbors dropped in. After they had gone Kate complained because the forenoon was so broken up. The next few hours were free from callers, and at the supper table Kate grumbled because the afternoon was so stupid and lonesome. When Mr. Merton came in bringing no mail, Kate exclaimed that nobody ever answered her letters, and that she might just as well not write; yet when the next day brought three, she sighed over the time "wasted in reading such long letters." The week sped swiftly and Sunday night came. Mrs. Howland's visit was all but finished. She was going early the next morning.