Early in July Mr. Smith took his departure from Hillerton. He made a farewell call upon each of the Blaisdell families, and thanked them for all their kindness in assisting him with his Blaisdell book.  
The Blaisdells, one and all, said they were very sorry to have him go. Miss wiped her eyes, and told Mr. Smith she could never, never thank him enough for what he had done for her. Mellicent, too, with shy eyes , told him she should never forget what he had done for her—and for Donald.
 
James and Flora and Frank—and even Jane!—said that they would like to have one of the Blaisdell books, when they were published, to hand down in the family. Flora took out her purse and said that she would pay for hers now; but Mr. Smith hastily, and with some evident , refused the money, saying that he could not tell yet what the price of the book would be.
 
All the Blaisdells, except Frank, Fred, and Bessie, went to the station to see Mr. Smith off. They said they wanted to. They told him he was just like one of the family, anyway, and they declared they hoped he would come back soon. Frank telephoned him that he would have gone, too, if he had not had so much to do at the store.
 
Mr. Smith seemed pleased at all this attention—he seemed, indeed, quite touched; but he seemed also embarrassed—in fact, he seemed often embarrassed during those last few days at Hillerton.
 
Miss Maggie Duff did not go to the station to see Mr. Smith off. Miss
Flora, on her way home, stopped at the Duff cottage and reproached Miss
Maggie for the delinquency.
"Nonsense! Why should I go?" laughed Miss Maggie.
 
"Why SHOULDN'T you?" retorted Miss Flora. "All the rest of us did, 'most."
 
"Well, that's all right. You're Blaisdells—but I'm not, you know."
 
"You're just as good as one, Maggie Duff! Besides, hasn't that man boarded here for over a year, and paid you good money, too?"
 
"Why, y-yes, of course."
 
"Well, then, I don't think it would have hurt you any to show him this last little attention. He'll think you don't like him, or—or are mad about something, when all the rest of us went."
 
"Nonsense, Flora!"
 
"Well, then, if—Why, Maggie Duff, you're BLUSHING!" she broke off, peering into Miss Maggie's face in a way that did not tend to the unmistakable color that was creeping to her forehead. "You ARE blushing! I declare, if you were twenty years younger, and I didn't know better, I should say that—" She stopped , then on, her suddenly alight with a new idea. "NOW I know why you didn't go to the station, Maggie Duff! That man proposed to you, and you refused him!" she triumphed.
 
"Flora!" Miss Maggie, her face .
 
"He did, I know he did! Hattie always said it would be a match—from the very first, when he came here to your house."
 
"FLORA!" gasped Miss Maggie again, looking about her very much as if she were flight.
 
"Well, she did—but I didn't believe it. Now I know. You refused him—now, didn't you?"
 
"Certainly not!" Miss Maggie caught her breath a little convulsively.
 
"Honest?"
 
"Flora! Stop this silly talk right now. I have answered you once. I shan't again."
 
"Hm-m." Miss Flora fell back in her chair. "Well, I suppose you didn't, then, if you say so. And I don't need to ask if you accepted him. You didn't, of course, or you'd have been there to see him off. And he wouldn't have gone then, anyway, probably. So he didn't ask you, I suppose. Well, I never did believe, like Hattie did, that—"
 
"Flora," interrupted Miss Maggie , "WILL you stop talking in that absurd way? Listen, I did not care to go to the station to-day. I am very busy. I am going away next week. I am going—to Chicago."
 
"To CHICAGO—you!" Miss Flora came in her chair.
 
"Yes, for a visit. I'm going to see my old classmate, Nellie
Maynard—Mrs. Tyndall."
"Maggie!"
 
"What's the matter?"
 
"Why, n-nothing. It's lovely, of course, only—only I—I'm so surprised! You never go anywhere."
 
"All the more reason why I should, then. It's time I did," smiled Miss
Maggie. Miss Maggie was looking more at ease now.
"When are you going?"
 
"Next Wednesday. I heard from Nellie last night. She is expecting me then."
 
"How splendid! I'm so glad! And I do hope you can DO it, and that it won't peter out at the last minute, same's most of your good times do. Poor Maggie! And you've had such a hard life—and your boarder leaving, too! That'll make a lot of difference in your pocketbook, won't it? But, Maggie, you'll have to have some new clothes."
 
"Of course. I've been shopping this afternoon. I've got to have—oh, lots of things."
 
"Of course you have. And, Maggie,"—Miss Flora's face grew eager,—"please, PLEASE, won't you let me help you a little—about those clothes? And get some nice ones—some real nice ones, for once. You KNOW how I'd love to! Please, Maggie, there's a good girl!"
 
"Thank you, no, dear," refused Miss Maggie, shaking her head with a smile. "But I appreciate your kindness just the same—indeed, I do!"
 
"If you wouldn't be so proud," Miss Flora.
 
But Miss Maggie stopped her with a gesture.
 
"No, no,—listen! I—I have something to tell you. I was going to tell you soon, anyway, and I'll tell it now. I HAVE money, dear,—lots of it now."
 
"You HAVE money!"
 
"Yes. Father's Cousin George died two months ago."
 
"The rich one, in Alaska?"
 
"Yes; and to father's daughter he left—fifty thousand dollars."
 
"MAG-gie!"
 
"And I never even SAW him! But he loved father, you know, years ago, and father loved him."
 
"But had you ever heard from him—late years?"
 
"Not much. Father was very angry because he went to Alaska in the first place, you know, and they haven't ever written very often."
 
"Fifty thousand! And you've got it now?"
 
"Not yet—all of it. They sent me a thousand—just for pin money, they said. The lawyer's written several times, and he's been here once. I believe it's all to come next month."
 
"Oh, I'm so glad, Maggie," breathed Flora. "I'm so glad! I don't know of anybody I'd rather see take a little comfort in life than you!"
 
At the door, fifteen minutes later, Miss Flora said again how glad she was; but she added wistfully:—
 
"I'm sure I don't know, though, what I'm going to do all summer without you. Just think how lonesome we'll be—you gone to Chicago, Hattie and Jim and all their family moved to Plainville, and even Mr. Smith gone, too! And I think we're going to miss Mr. Smith a whole lot, too. He was a real nice man. Don't you think so, Maggie?"
 
"Indeed, I do think he was a very nice man!" declared Miss Maggie.
"Now, Flora, I shall want you to go shopping with me lots. Can you?"
And Miss Flora, eagerly entering into Miss Maggie's discussion of frills and flounces, failed to notice that Miss Maggie had dropped the subject of Mr. Smith somewhat hastily.
 
Hillerton had much to talk about during those summer days. Mr. Smith's going had created a mild discussion—the "ancestor feller" was well known and well liked in the town. But even his departure did not arouse the interest that was upon the removal of the James Blaisdells to Plainville; and this, in turn, did not cause so great an excitement as did the news that Miss Maggie Duff had inherited fifty thousand dollars and had gone to Chicago to spend it. And the fact that nearly all who heard this declared that they hoped she WOULD spend a good share of it—in Chicago, or elsewhere—on herself, showed pretty well just where Miss Maggie Duff stood in the hearts of Hillerton.
 
. . . . . .
 
It was early in September that Miss Flora had the letter from Miss
Maggie. Not but that she had received letters from Miss Maggie before,
but that the contents of this one made it at once, to all the
Blaisdells, "the letter."
Miss Flora began to read it, gave a little cry, and sprang to her feet. , her breath suspended, she finished it. Five minutes later, gloves half on and hat , she was hurrying across the common to her brother Frank's home.
 
"Jane, Jane," she panted, as soon as she found her sister-in-law. "I've had a letter from Maggie. Mr. Stanley G. Fulton has come back. HE'S COME BACK!"
 
"Come back! Alive, you mean? Oh, my goodness gracious! What'll Hattie do? She's just been living on having that money. And us, with all we've lost, too! But, then, maybe we wouldn't have got it, anyway. My stars! And Maggie wrote you? Where's the letter?"
 
"There! And I never thought to bring it," ejaculated Miss Flora vexedly. "But, never mind! I can tell you all she said. She didn't write much. She said it would be in all the Eastern papers right away, of course, but she wanted to tell us first, so we wouldn't be so surprised. He's just come. Walked into his lawyer's office without a telegram, or anything. Said he didn't want any fuss made. Mr. Tyndall brought home the news that n............