The four elder Misses Middleton sank again into their chairs. Miss Thomasine remained at the window until the subject of their remarks had disappeared among the trees at the farther end of the lawn. Then she too resumed her seat.
"Something must be done," said Miss Joanna, for at least the eleventh time that morning.
The five Misses Middleton lived in Alden, in a large old-fashioned house on the outskirts of the town. Here their grandfather had bought an extensive tract of land and had built a stately mansion in the days when rooms were made of spacious breadth and depth and ceilings were lofty. The town at that time was busy and bustling enough. A large number of the inhabitants were seafaring men, and not only commanded their ships, but owned them too, and foreign vessels touching at the port brought much stir of life and commerce, now long since passed away.
Old Captain Middleton sailed many a voyage in his own good ships, and brought home not only plenty of money, but treasures from China and Japan, and even from India. Among other things there was a quaintly shaped yellow porcelain bowl decorated with odd Oriental colors, which was made in China. It was not large, but its texture and workmanship were exquisite, and it was said that there was no other like it in America. In fact, there was but one other in the world, and that was in the possession of a rich mandarin of Peking. This bowl had been presented by old Captain Middleton to his daughter-in-law upon his son's marriage, and it now belonged to their five daughters. It was always to remain in the family, and it was known as the Middleton bowl.
Times had changed in Alden, as the saying is, and it was no longer a commercial town, but a sleepy, slow-going place as far as business was concerned. Its present inhabitants, however, most of whose ancestors had lived there for generations, endeavored to keep up with modern life and thought. There were reading-clubs and intellectual societies of all sorts for the serious-minded, and balls, assemblies, and teas for the more frivolous, but the five Misses Middleton were beyond it all. Behind the massive stone walls which surrounded their grandfather's acres, now their own, they lived in seclusion, as remote from outside life and outside ideas as though they dwelt in some lonely castle in an enchanted wood.
To be sure, they had frequent callers, for they were greatly respected by their fellow-townspeople, and these calls were returned after the proper interval of time had elapsed.
Into this quiet household of five maiden ladies was suddenly precipitated a twelve-year-old niece. Their only brother, Theodore by name, who was very much younger than themselves, had early in life left the quiet old home in Alden, and gone to one of the large cities, where he married and became a prosperous business man. Circumstances now obliged him to go to South America for six or eight months, and rather than subject their only daughter Theodora to the dangers of the climate, Mr. and Mrs. Middleton had asked her aunts to take charge of her until their return.
The five aunts were somewhat aghast at this proposition. Since Miss Thomasine had given up her dolls and packed them tenderly away in the attic many, many years ago, childhood was unknown to them, for Theodora's home was far away, and she had never visited them before.
However, it was a girl—a boy would have been absolutely impossible—and next to Theodore she was their nearest of kin. And Mrs. Middleton herself had suggested a means of relief should her daughter prove to be too much care for them.
"If you grow tired of her, or if she gives you any trouble, send her to boarding-school. She will be happy at Miss Ford's, where I went, and I have made every arrangement for her to go if she should be too much for you. But I am sure no one could grow tired of my Teddy!"