Near the church was the parsonage, where Mr. Lorimer lived, and the old Lorimer house not far beyond was occupied by Miss Rebecca Lorimer.  Some stranger might ask the question why the minister and his sister did not live together, but you would have understood it at once after you had lived for a little while in town.  They were very fond of each other, and the minister dined with Miss Rebecca on Sundays, and she passed the day with him on Wednesdays, and they ruled their separate households with decision and dignity.  I think Mr. Lorimer’s house showed no signs of being without a mistress, any more than his sister’s betrayed the want of a master’s care and authority.

The Carews were very kind friends of ours, and had been Miss Brandon’s best friends.  We heard that there had always been a coolness between Miss Brandon and Miss Lorimer, and that, though they exchanged visits and were always polite, there was a chill in the politeness, and one would never have suspected them of admiring each other at all.  We had the whole history of the trouble, which dated back scores of years, from Miss Honora Carew, but we always took pains to appear ignorant of the feud, and I think Miss Lorimer was satisfied that it was best not to refer to it, and to let bygones be bygones.  It would not have been true Deephaven courtesy to prejudice Kate against her grand-aunt, and Miss Rebecca cherished her dislike in silence, which gave us a most grand respect for her, since we knew she thought herself in the right; though I think it never had come to an open quarrel between these majestic aristocrats.

Miss Honora Carew and Mr. Dick and their elder sister, Mrs. Dent, had a charmingly sedate and quiet home in the old Carew house.  Mrs. Dent was ill a great deal while we were there, but she must have been a very brilliant woman, and was not at all dull when we knew her.  She had outlived her husband and her children, and she had, several years before our summer there, given up her own home, which was in the city, and had come back to Deephaven.  Miss Honora—­dear Miss Honora!—­had been one of the brightest, happiest girls, and had lost none of her brightness and happiness by growing old.  She had lost none of her fondness for society, though she was so contented in quiet Deephaven, and I think she enjoyed Kate’s and my stories of our pleasures as much as we did hers of old times.  We used to go to see her almost every day.  “Mr. Dick,” as they called their brother, had once been a merchant in the East Indies, and there were quantities of curiosities and most beautiful china which he had brought and sent home, which gave the house a character of its own.  He had been very rich and had lost some of his money, and then he came home and was still considered to possess princely wealth by his neighbors.  He had a great fondness for reading and study, which had not been lost sight of during his business life, and he spent most of his time in his library.  He and Mr. Lorimer had their differences of opinion about certain points of theology, and this made them much fonder of each other’s society, and gave them a great deal of pleasure; for after every series of arguments, each was sure that he had vanquished the other, or there were alternate victories and defeats which made life vastly interesting and important.