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PLANS AND PLOTTINGS.
To Billy, Alice Greggory's first visit to Hillside was in every way a delight and a satisfaction.

To Alice, it was even more than that.
For the first time in years she found herself welcomed into a home of wealth, culture, and refinement as an equal; and the frank cordiality and naturalness of her hostess's evident expectation of meeting a congenial companion was like balm to a sensitive soul rendered morbid by long years of superciliousness and snubbing.
No wonder that under the cheery friendliness of it all, Alice Greggory's cold reserve vanished, and that in its place came something very like her old ease and charm of manner.

By the time Aunt Hannah--according to previous agreement--came into the room, the two girls were laughing and chatting over the operetta as if they had known each other for years.
Much to Billy's delight, Alice Greggory, as a musician, proved to be eminently satisfactory.

She was quick at sight reading, and accurate.
She played easily, and with good expression.