"Really Bess, you are getting more dreadful every day," cried Ida helplessly, "please don't call me this horrid name when Stephen and Dr. Herrick come." "Dr. Herrick would understand; he is a scholar. However I won't call you anything but Juno--will that do?" "I should prefer to be called by my proper name!" Bess made a mouth but yielded the point. She was devotedly fond of Ida, and always said that her beauty would raise the family into affluence once more. "My _brains_ may do something," she said, "but Ida's looks will attract all the men of wealth and position." "I do not want any of them," protested Ida with a blush. "Do let me see after my own future, Bess darling." Undeniably Bess was the cleverest of the family. She was so bright and quick, and possessed of such indomitable perseverance, that she easily exercised a despotic sway over the weaker vessels. Ida looked after the house, but Bess was the real head who paid the bills, and bullied the tradesmen, and saw that everything was in order. Even Frank gave way before her. But Frank was rather like Ida in the matter of bovine simplicity. He was a big handsome fellow, never out of temper. When he was not looking after the farm he strolled in the fields, and searched into the secret workings of Nature. Sometimes he wrote articles for the papers and magazines. A Gilbert White of the Parish of Saxham, that is what Frank Endicotte was. Some of his articles had even been accepted in London, and when he could be induced to write, he usually made a few guineas. But Frank was lazy, and it needed all the scolding of Bess to make him do his duty in the way of literary work. So far as the farm went he was never idle, as he loved an open air-life, and took a genuine interest in stock, top drainage and crops. Florence, who was now home on her weekly holiday, bounced out on Dr. Jim and Stephen as they came up the avenue. She was a girl in her teens, more like Bess than any of the rest, and bubbled over with animal spirits. This was her last quarter at school, and now her hair was turned up and she had arrived at the dignity of long frocks. But at heart she was still a schoolgirl, and on this especial day had let down her long hair much to the dismay of Ida who was nothing if not conventional. "Oh, Stephen!" she cried clasping him by the arm. "I am so glad you have come. Frank is writing, Bess is typing, and Ida is making a new dress. I have no one to amuse me." "Where is the Changeling?" asked Stephen laughing. "Sidney! Oh, he has a holiday, and has gone over to see 'The Pines.' You know how fond he is of going there. He was the only one of us that was not afraid of the Colonel." "I don't think Bess was." "No. It would take an army to frighten Bess. How are you Dr. Herrick? I am rude not to have spoken to you before. Come inside, and wake us all up. I am sure this place is like the palace of the Sleeping Beauty."