Meantime Julia and Fanny had become tolerably well established both in school and at Mrs. Crane’s.  Julia was perfectly delighted with her new quarters, for she said “everything was in style, just as it should be,” and she readily adopted all the “city notions.”  But poor Fanny was continually committing some blunder.  She would forget to use her napkin, or persist in using her knife instead of her four-tined silver fork.  These little things annoyed Julia excessively, and numerous were the lectures given in secret to Fanny, who would laugh merrily at her sister’s distress and say she really wished her father would dine some day at Mrs. Crane’s table.

“Heaven forbid that he should!” said Julia.  “I should be mortified to death.”

“They would not mind his oddities,” said Fanny, “for I overheard Mrs. Crane telling the exquisitely fashionable Mrs. Carrington that our father was ’a quizzical old savage, but rich as a nabob, and we should undoubtedly inherit a hundred thousand dollars apiece.’  And then Mrs. Carrington said, ‘Oh, is it possible?  One can afford to patronize them.’  And then she added something else which I think I’ll not tell you.”

“Oh, do,” said Julia.  “It too bad to raise my curiosity and not gratify it.”

“Well, then,” said Fanny, “Mrs. Carrington said, ’There is a rumor that the eldest Miss Middleton is engaged to Mr. Wilmot.  I wonder at it, for with her extreme beauty and great fortune, she could command a more eligible match than a poor pedagogue.’”

The next morning at breakfast Mrs. Crane informed her boarders that she expected a new arrival the next day, Friday.  She said, “It is a new gentleman from New Orleans.  His name is Dr. Lacey.  His parents were natives of Boston, Massachusetts, but he was born in New Orleans, and will inherit from his father a large fortune; but as he wished for a profession, he chose that of medicine.  He is a graduate of Yale College and usually spends his summers North, so this season he stops in Frankfort, and honors my house with his presence.  He is very handsome and agreeable, and these young ladies might put a lock and key on their hearts.”

The last part of this speech was directed to Julia, who blushed deeply, and secretly wondered if Dr. Lacey were as handsome as Mr. Wilmot.  She frequently found herself thinking about him during the day, but Fanny never gave him a thought until evening, when, as she and her sister were together in their room, the latter suddenly exclaimed, “I wonder if Dr. Lacey will be here at breakfast tomorrow morning.”

“And if he is,” said Fanny, “I suppose you want me to be very careful to use my fork, and break my egg correctly.”

“I think it would be well for you always to try and show as much good breeding as possible,” said Julia.

“Well,” returned Fanny, “I reckon this Dr. Lacing or Dr. Lacework—­what’s his name?—­will ever be anything to us, for I am sure he’d never think of me, and you are engaged to a man who is much better than any of your New Orleans pill bags.”