“Only my old one, and that is bent every way.”
“Well, I will get you a new one. You will also want a shawl and some gloves. As you are to be a companion to the children, it will be a recommendation if you go looking neat and comfortable. It won’t take long to purchase them; and whatever else you need I can send you afterwards. Wait a moment, and I will be ready to accompany you.”
He went into the inner room, and quickly emerged, completely metamorphosed in his personal appearance by a white wig and whiskers, and a staff, on which he leaned heavily. The girl looked at him in astonishment.
“What sort of a grandfather do you think I shall make?” said he, laughing. “I shall go out with you to Mr. Gregory’s; and I have no doubt, that, in consideration of my gray hairs, they will be induced to take my grand-daughter into their service.”
So saying, he left the room, accompanied by the child, who had improved the interval in smoothing her hair, over which she placed an ugly straw bonnet, which, however, was shortly to be displaced by one of a prettier pattern. Their purchases completed, they stepped into an omnibus, which would convey them within half a mile of Mr. Gregory’s.
II.
A few miles distant from the city was a tasteful brown cottage, having a piazza on all sides, and surrounded by a carefully trained hedge. This was the summer retreat of P. H. Gregory, a New York merchant.
It was a warm day in June. Two children, a boy and girl, respectively of six and eight years, were playing in the yard, when they espied through the hedge an old man, with hair and whiskers white as the driven snow, accompanied by a young girl, toiling, apparently with great difficulty, towards the house, notwithstanding the assistance he derived from a stout cane, on which he leaned heavily.
Attracted by the sight, they ran into the house, calling on their mother to look out and see. She had scarcely done so, when, to her surprise, she found that the pair had entered the gate, and were coming towards the house.
“Is Mrs. Gregory within?” asked the old man of the servant who answered the bell.