Maria and her father entered the house, which was not far.

It was a quite new Queen Anne cottage of the better class, situated in a small lot of land, and with other houses very near on either side.

There was a great clump of hydrangeas on the small smooth lawn in front, and on the piazza stood a small table, covered with a dainty white cloth trimmed with lace, on which were laid, in ostentatious neatness, the evening paper and a couple of magazines.

There were chairs, and palms in jardinieres stood on either side of the flight of wooden steps.
Maria's mother was, however, in the house, seated beside the sitting-room table, on which stood a kerosene lamp with a singularly ugly shade.

She was darning stockings.