Page:Salem - a tale of the seventeenth century (IA taleseventeenth00derbrich).pdf/181

 house, and opening the glass doors which closed it at its lower extremity, came out upon a vine-shaded porch or veranda, which ran across a portion of the southern or back part of the house. Below the wide, easy steps spread the flower-garden, now bright in all the radiance of its summer hues; and at the extremity of the little flowery domain, the quiet, blue waters of "Browne's Cove" were rippling and flashing in the sunny light.

Upon a straight, high-backed chair in this cool and shady seclusion sat his sister, Mrs. Browne, the mistress of the establishment, still a fair and graceful matron, although now past the earlier bloom and freshness of her youthful beauty.

She was richly and becomingly dressed, after the rather gorgeous fashion of the day. A loosely fitting negligee of rich satin, of that peculiar shade of lilac-pink which we so often see in Copley's matchless portraits, was worn over a pale sea-green petticoat of quilted silk, and fell in sheeny folds to the ground. The dress was cut low and open in front, leaving her neck partially bare, and