"A four-leaved clover! one, two, three of them," cried her young mistress from the lawn at the side of the house. "We are in luck! Times are going to change for us all, I think."
"The best luck we can have is to quit this house forever," answered Doris, with a boldness unusual on her lips.
"Ah," returned Emma, with her spirits a little dashed, "I cannot say about that, but we will try and be happy in it."
"Happy in it!" repeated Doris, but this time to herself. "I can never be happy in it, now I have had my dreams of pleasure abroad." And she left the kitchen door and began her slow walk towards the end of the garden.
Arrived at the place where Huckins waited for her, she stopped.
"Good afternoon," said she. "Pleasant strolling under these poplars."
He grunted and shook his head slowly to and fro.
"Nothing is very pleasant here," said he. "I have stood it as long as I can. My nieces are good girls, but I have failed to make them see reason, and I must leave it now to these two lovers of theirs to do what they can."
"And do you think they will succeed? That the young ladies will be influenced by them to break up their old habits?"
This was what Huckins did think, and what was driving him to extremity, but he veiled his real feelings very successfully under a doleful shake of the head.