Hildegarde's Home   By: Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards (1850-1943)

[Illustration: HILDEGARDE AND THE CHINA POTS. Frontispiece. ]

HILDEGARDE'S HOME

BY

LAURA E. RICHARDS

AUTHOR OF "QUEEN HILDEGARDE," "HILDEGARDE'S HOLIDAY," "CAPTAIN JANUARY," ETC.

ILLUSTRATED

BOSTON ESTES AND LAURIAT PUBLISHERS

COPYRIGHT, 1892, BY ESTES AND LAURIAT. TYPOGRAPHY BY J. S. CUSHING & CO., BOSTON.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGE I. THE HOME ITSELF 11 II. A DISH OF GOSSIP 33 III. MORNING HOURS 51 IV. A WALK AND AN ADVENTURE 71 V. UNCLE AND NEPHEW 100 VI. COUSIN JACK 120 VII. MISS AGATHA'S CABINET 137 VIII. THE POPLARS 155 IX. THE COUSINS 179 X. BONNY SIR HUGH 198 XI. A CALL AND A CONSPIRACY 216 XII. THE SECOND ACT 234 XIII. A PICNIC 255 XIV. OVER THE JAM POTS 281 XV. AT THE BROWN COTTAGE 292 XVI. GOOD BY! 309

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE HILDEGARDE AND THE CHINA POTS Frontispiece "IT WAS VERY PLEASANT UP IN THIS AIRY BOWER" 81 "JACK FERRERS APPEARED CARRYING A HUGE BUNCH OF ROSES" 121 "HILDEGARDE HAD BEEN MAKING FRIENDS WITH MERLIN" 175 HILDEGARDE FINDING HUGH AND MERLIN BY THE BROOK 201 HUGH AND COLONEL FERRERS 249 OVER THE JAM POTS 280 "HE GAVE ME A LUNGE IN QUART" 301

HILDEGARDE'S HOME.

CHAPTER I.

THE HOME ITSELF.

IT was a pleasant place. The house was a large, low, old fashioned one, with the modern addition of a deep, wide verandah running across its front. Before it was a circular sweep of lawn, fringed with trees; beside it stood a few noble elms, which bent lovingly above the gambrel roof. There were some flower beds, rather neglected looking, under the south windows, and there was a kitchen garden behind the house. This was all that Hildegarde Grahame had seen so far of her new home, for she had only just arrived. She stood now on the verandah, looking about her with keen, inquiring eyes, a tall, graceful girl, very erect, with a certain proud carriage of the head. Her dress of black and white shepherd's plaid was very simple, but it fitted to perfection, and there was a decided "air" to her little black felt hat.

Hildegarde's father had died about six months before the time our story opens. He had been very wealthy, but many of his investments had shrunk in value, and the failure of a bank whose cashier had proved dishonest entailed heavy losses upon him; so that, after his death, it was found that the sum remaining for his widow and only child, after all debts were paid, was no very large one. They would have enough to live on, and to live comfortably; but the "big luxuries," as Hildegarde called them, the horses and carriages, the great New York house with its splendid furniture and troops of servants, must go; and go they did, without loss of time. Perhaps neither Hildegarde nor her mother regretted these things much. Mrs. Grahame had been for years an indefatigable worker, giving most of her time to charities; she knew that she should never rest so long as she lived in New York. Hildegarde had been much in the country during the past two years, had learned to love it greatly, and found city life too "cabined, cribbed, confined," to suit her present taste. The dear father had always preferred to live in town; but now that he was gone, they were both glad to go away from the great, bustling, noisy, splendid place. So, when Mrs. Grahame's lawyer told her that an aged relative, who had lately died, had left his country house as a legacy to her, both she and Hildegarde said at once, "Let us go and live there!"