As often as I could do so conveniently I visited my mother and Aunt
Patience. Aunt Patience seemed happier than I had ever before seen her.
I think the quiet of her home tended to soften her somewhat irritable
temper.




CHAPTER V.

WILLIE LEIGHTON'S RETURN FROM ENGLAND.


Soon after I became a resident in the dwelling of Mr. Leighton, they
received a letter from Willie, informing them that the estate of his
deceased relative could not be finally arranged in less time than a
year, perhaps longer; and he thought that instead of returning to
Philadelphia he would enter a College in England, and devote the
intervening time to study. His parents could not object, knowing it to
be for his interest, as he had not, when a boy taken very kindly to
study. A year passed away, and Willie did not return, but they received
frequent letters from him. Near the close of the second year he wrote,
informing them that he intended leaving England on the tenth of the
month following, as the matters pertaining to the property left him were
now satisfactorily arranged.

About this time Laura returned home from school, having finished her
term of study. Mrs. Leighton intended sending Georgania to the same
institution where Laura studied, but she was not to go till the coming