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 Bio-Inspired
Algorithms in
PID Controller
Optimization
 Intelligent Signal Processing
and Data Analysis
Series Editor
Nilanjan Dey
Department of Information Technology
Techno India College of Technology
Kolkata, India

Proposals for the series should be sent directly to

one of the series editors above, or submitted to:
Chapman & Hall/CRC
Taylor and Francis Group
3 Park Square, Milton Park
Abingdon, OX14 4RN, UK

Bio-Inspired Algorithms in PID Controller Optimization

Jagatheesan Kaliannan, Anand Baskaran,
Nilanjan Dey and Amira S. Ashour
 Bio-Inspired
Algorithms in
PID Controller
Optimization

Jagatheesan Kaliannan
Anand Baskaran
Nilanjan Dey
Amira S. Ashour
CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
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Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742

© 2018 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

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No claim to original U.S. Government works

Printed on acid-free paper

International Standard Book Number-13: 978-1-138-59816-4 (Hardback)

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Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data

Names: Kaliannan, Jagatheesan, author. | Baskaran, Anand, author. | Dey,

Nilanjan, 1984- author. | Ashour, Amira, 1975- author.
Title: Bio-inspired algorithms in PID controller optimization / Jagatheesan
Kaliannan, Anand Baskaran, Nilanjan Dey, and Amira S. Ashour.
Description: First edition. | Boca Raton, FL : CRC/Taylor & Francis Group,
2018. | Series: Intelligent signal processing and data analysis | “A CRC
title, part of the Taylor & Francis imprint, a member of the Taylor &
Francis Group, the academic division of T&F Informa plc.” | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018014060| ISBN 9781138598164 (hardback : acid-free paper)
| ISBN 9780429486579 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Interconnected electric utility systems--Automation. |
Electric power systems--Load dispatching--Mathematics. | Mathematical
optimization. | Nature-inspired algorithms. | Cogeneration of electric
power and heat. | PID controllers.
Classification: LCC TK1007 .K35 2018 | DDC 621.319/1--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018014060

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Contents

Preface, vii
Book Objectives, ix
Authors, xi

CHAPTER 1   ◾   Introduction 1
1.1 LOAD FREQUENCY CONTROL
AND AUTOMATIC GENERATION CONTROL 3
1.2 BIO-INSPIRED OPTIMIZATION ALGORITHMS 4
1.3 LITERATURE SURVEY 6

CHAPTER 2   ◾   Load Frequency Control of Single

Area Thermal Power System with
Biogeography-Based Optimization
Technique 11
2.1 INVESTIGATED THERMAL POWER SYSTEM 12
2.2 CONTROLLER DESIGN AND OBJECTIVE
FUNCTION 14
2.3 BIOGEOGRAPHY-BASED OPTIMIZATION
TECHNIQUE 15
2.4 RESULTS AND ANALYSIS 17
2.4.1 Response of System with and without
Load Demand 18

v
vi   ◾    Contents

2.4.2 System Response with Different BIAs

Tuned PID Controller 19
2.5 CONCLUSION 21

CHAPTER 3   ◾   Automatic Generation Control

with Superconducting Magnetic
Energy Storage Unit and Ant Colony
Optimization-PID Controller in Multiarea
Interconnected Thermal Power System 23
3.1 SYSTEM UNDER STUDY 24
3.2 SUPERCONDUCTING MAGNETIC ENERGY
STORAGE (SMES) UNIT 26
3.3 PID CONTROLLER DESIGN 28
3.4 ANT COLONY OPTIMIZATION 30
3.5 SIMULATION RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 31
3.6 CONCLUSION 38

CHAPTER 4   ◾   Flower Pollination Algorithm Optimized

PID Controller for Performance
Improvement of Multiarea Interconnected
Thermal Power System with Nonlinearities 41
4.1 SYSTEM INVESTIGATED 42
4.2 CONTROLLER DESIGN AND OBJECTIVE
FUNCTION 43
4.3 FLOWER POLLINATION ALGORITHM (FPA) 46
4.4 SIMULATION RESULT AND ANALYSIS 48
4.5 CONCLUSION 56

CHAPTER 5   ◾   Challenges and Future Perspectives 57

REFERENCES, 59

INDEX, 71
Preface

Nowadays, interconnection of different power-generating systems

has increased due to the enormous amount of technical growth,
industrial development, and modern technologies to satisfy load
demand. The automatic generation control (AGC) in power sys-
tems handles the sudden load demand and the delivering of stipu-
lated power with good quality in a sudden and continuously varied
load period. Stability of standalone power systems and the power
quality are affected during the sudden load disturbance. In order
to overcome these issues, proper design of power systems and
suitable controller modeling is crucial when nonlinearities and
boiler dynamics component effects are incorporated in the sys-
tem. Load frequency control (LFC) has a substantial role in elec-
tric power systems with interconnected areas. Reliable maneuver
of the power system necessitates the power balance between the
system-associated losses and the total load demand of the power
generation. Thus, the LFC is used in the power system to keep the
frequency and tie-line power flow of the system within the limit
during sudden load disturbance.
The main problem in the interconnected power system is reduc-
ing the damping oscillations in the system frequency; thus, the
tie-line power flow deviations should be kept within the limit dur-
ing sudden load demand. When damping oscillations exist in the
system response for a long period of time without any adequate
controller, it affects the system operation and quality of delivered
power supply. To provide good quality power and stable power

vii
viii   ◾    Preface

system operation, extensive research work has been carried out

and proposed in the last few decades. Due to the massive devel-
opment in industries and technology, the load demand value is
changeable and cannot be predicted as it varies randomly.
Several efforts are carried out based on effective optimization
methods to realize numerous benefits and purposes for a power
system’s operation control. Researchers have conducted differ-
ent studies to solve the optimization problems to optimize the
power system secondary controller parameters. Differential evo-
lution (DE), particle swarm optimization (PSO), firefly algorithm
(FA), genetic algorithm (GA), and ant colony optimization (ACO)
are examples of optimization algorithms that can be included
to design PID controller parameters for effective operation of a
thermal power system. In the power systems, the proportional–
integral (PI) and proportional–integral–derivative (PID) control-
lers are used as secondary controllers. Consequently, this book
includes different applications of the optimization techniques to
design the PID controller for LFC of single area as well as multi­
area interconnected thermal power systems with and without
incorporating nonlinearities and boiler dynamics effects.

Jagatheesan Kaliannan, PhD

Anand Baskaran, PhD
Nilanjan Dey, PhD
Amira S. Ashour, PhD
Book Objectives

Single area and multiarea power generating system responses

are affected during emergency load disturbance conditions, and
the power system has more nonlinear components, such as the
governor dead band (GDB) and generation rate constraint (GRC)
nonlinearities. In order to get desired performance in the power
system, all nonlinear component effects are incorporated during
optimization of the controller gain values. Therefore, optimiza-
tion techniques based on bio-inspired algorithms (BIAs) are
implemented to tune PID controller gain values and it is consid-
ered as secondary controller during emergency load conditions
in the power system. The primary objectives of this book are as
follows:

• To propose the clear Simulink® model of the single area and

multiarea interconnected thermal power system by consid-
ering nonlinearities and boiler dynamics effects in power
systems.
• To discuss and propose a bio-inspired algorithm–based
optimization technique to tune the gain value of the PID
controller in single area as well as multiarea interconnected
thermal power systems.
• To evaluate the performance of the proposed BIA’s tuned
controller by comparing other optimization techniques’
optimized controller performance in the same system.

ix
http://taylorandfrancis.com
Authors

Jagatheesan Kaliannan, PhD, is currently associated with the

Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Paavai
Engineering College, Namakkal, India. He received his BE degree
in electrical and electronics engineering in 2009 from Hindusthan
College of Engineering and Technology, Coimbatore, Tamil
Nadu, India, and his ME degree in applied electronics in 2012
from Paavai College of Engineering, Namakkal, Tamil Nadu,
India. He completed his PhD in information and communica-
tion engineering in 2017 from Anna University Chennai, India.
His research interests include optimization techniques, advanced
control systems, electrical machines, and power system modeling
and control. He has published more than 35 papers in national
and international journals and conference proceedings, and more
than 5 book chapters in reputed books. He is an associate member
of UACEE; member of SCIEI, IACSIT, IAENG, and ISRD; and
graduate student member of IEEE.

Anand Baskaran, PhD, received his BE in electrical and electron-

ics engineering in 2001 from Government College of Engineering,
Tirunelveli, India; ME in power systems engineering from
Annamalai University in 2002; and PhD in electrical engineer-
ing from Anna University, Chennai, India, in 2011. Since 2003,
he has been with the Department of Electrical and Electronics
Engineering, Hindusthan College of Engineering and Technology,
Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India, where he is currently working

xi
xii   ◾    Authors

as an associate professor. His research interests are power system

control, optimization, and application of computational intel-
ligence to power system problems. He has published more than
85 papers in national and international journals and conference
proceedings. He is a member of IEEE, SSI, and ISTE.

Nilanjan Dey, PhD, is currently associated with the Department

of Information Technology, Techno India College of Technology,
Kolkata, West Bengal, India. He holds an honorary position of vis-
iting scientist at Global Biomedical Technologies Inc. (California);
and research scientist of laboratory of applied mathematical mod-
eling in human physiology, Territorial Organization of Scientific
and Engineering Unions, Bulgaria. He is an associate researcher
at Laboratoire RIADI, University of Manouba, Tunisia. He is an
associated member of the Wearable Computing Research Lab,
University of Reading, London. His research topics include medi-
cal imaging, soft computing, data mining, machine learning,
rough sets, computer-aided diagnosis, and atherosclerosis. He has
published 25 books, and 300 international conference and journal
papers. He is the editor in chief of the International Journal of
Ambient Computing and Intelligence and International Journal of
Rough Sets and Data Analysis; co-editor in chief of International
Journal of Synthetic Emotions (IJSE) and International Journal
of Natural Computing Research; series editor of Advances in
Geospatial Technologies and Advances in Ubiquitous Sensing
Applications for Healthcare (AUSAH), Elsevier; executive edi-
tor of International Journal of Image Mining (IJIM); and associ-
ated editor of IEEE Access and the International Journal of Service
Science, Management, Engineering and Technology. He is a life
member of IE, UACEE, and ISOC. He is also been the chairman
of numerous international conferences, including ITITS 2017,
WS4 2017, and INDIA 2017.
 Authors   ◾   xiii

Amira S. Ashour, PhD, is an assistant professor and head of

the Department of Electronics and Electrical Communications
Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Tanta University, Egypt.
She received her masters degree in electrical engineering in 2001
and PhD in smart antenna in 2005 from the Department of
Electronics and Electrical Communications Engineering, Faculty
of Engineering, Tanta University, Egypt. She was the vice chair of
the Computer Science Department, Computers and Information
Technology College, Taif University, Saudi Arabia, from 2009
to 2015. She was the vice chair of the Computer Engineering
Department, Computers and Information Technology College,
Taif University, Saudi Arabia, for one year in 2015. Her research
topics of interest include smart antennas, direction of arrival
estimation, target tracking, image processing, medical imaging,
machine learning, soft computing, and image analysis. She has
been published in 7 books and 105 international conference and
journal papers. Ashour is an editor in chief for the International
Journal of Synthetic Emotions (IJSE). She is coeditor of the book
series Advances in Ubiquitous Sensing Applications for Healthcare
(AUSAH). She is an associate editor for the International Journal
of Rough Sets and Data Analysis, as well as the International Journal
of Ambient Computing and Intelligence. She is an editorial board
member of the International Journal of Image Mining (IJIM).
http://taylorandfrancis.com
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction

C ontinuing development in technology has raised the

dependence on electrical power availability. Commercial
power resources enable the modern world to operate even with all
the required demands. The electric power system has a significant
role in several applications including the storage, transfer, and use
of electric power. The electric power system is an electrical net-
work of components organized to convert one form of energy into
a useful form of electrical power. The operation and performance
of electrical equipment is mainly based on the quality of power
supply. With the emergence of sophisticated technology, intelli-
gent technology demands power that is free of disturbance and
interruption.
The mismatch between power generation and load disturbance
affects generating voltage and frequency of the standalone sys-
tem. In order to overcome this concern, a power-generating unit
becomes an essential part of regulating the frequency of the sys-
tem, tie-line power flow between connected areas, voltage value,
and load flow conditions within the desired value. Nonetheless,
nowadays, the electric energy demand is rapidly increasing due
to the enormous development in technology. Consequently, large-
scale power systems are created to balance energy demand with

1
2   ◾    Bio-Inspired Algorithms in PID Controller Optimization

generation. When load demand is increased in any one of the

power systems, the remaining connected areas share the power
between them to maintain the system in stable condition. The size
and complexity of systems are increasing with large interconnec-
tions of control areas. The complexity of systems is reduced with
the help of recently developed modern control theory.
The power balance among the generating power and the total
load demand provides good quality power and reliable power
supply to all consumers. During the nominal loading conditions,
each power-generating unit takes care of its stability and operat-
ing point. Whenever sudden load disturbance occurs in any of
the generating units, it disturbs the frequency of the system and
tie-line power flow within the interconnected power systems. In
addition, the tie-line power flow deviations between the intercon-
nected power plant and damping oscillations that occur in the
system response affect the stability of the power system. In order
to guarantee power system stability, a speed governor can be used
to act as a primary control loop; in addition, a secondary control-
ler can also be introduced to retain the system parameters within
the quantified value. The frequency regulation and active power
control is called load frequency control (LFC). Furthermore, the
voltage control and reactive power are referred to as automatic
voltage regulation (AVR). The main aim of LFC is to preserve the
frequency with a constant value even with the continuous change
of the active power demand, which is related to the loads, and it
regulates the tie-line power exchange between the interconnected
areas.
The electrical grid of interconnected networks is used to deliver
the electrical supply from the generating unit to power consum-
ers. The grid contains power-generating stations to generate the
electrical power supply. The high voltage transmission line carries
the generated power from the sources to load centers, where the
distribution centers connect individual customers and where the
power-generating stations are positioned near the fuel source.
 Introduction   ◾   3

1.1 LOAD FREQUENCY CONTROL

AND AUTOMATIC GENERATION CONTROL
The automatic generation control (AGC) as well as the LFC play
the foremost role in the power system process and the control of
any type of power plant unit. For generating and power deliv-
ery, suitable analysis of the power supply quality and regularity
become essential during emergency situations. In this situation,
power-generating units are interconnected via tie-lines to obtain
good quality of power supply. The interconnected power system
comprises hydro, nuclear, wind, solar, gas, and thermal power
plants. Thus, the system response yields damping oscillations in
the frequency and tie-line power flow deviations during the load
demand condition. To deliver good quality power supply to con-
sumers, the secondary controller gain values should change uni-
formly. During the higher-load demand condition, controller gain
values change maximally and this repeating process maintains the
quality of generated power by keeping error values equal to zero.
Typically, the PID controller consists of three basic terms: pro-
portional controller (P), integral controller (I), and derivative con-
troller (D). The proportional controller reduces the peak overshoot
in the system responses, the integral controller reduces the steady-
state error to zero, and the stability of the system is increased by
using the derivative controller. The input of PID controller is the
area control error (ACE) and the output of the controller is the con-
trol signal (delPref ). The output of controller is given into the power
system as a reference signal.
The PID controller design in the literature review included sev-
eral methods for optimization of controller gain values with dif-
ferent cost functions. Such functions include the integral square
error (ISE), integral time square error (ITSE), integral absolute
error (IAE), and integral time absolute error (ITAE) cost func-
tions. In this book, the PID controller is considered a feedback
controller, which gives the appropriate control signal for control-
ling the power plant during abnormal conditions. The value of the
4   ◾    Bio-Inspired Algorithms in PID Controller Optimization

control signal generated by the controller for each area is given in

the following expression:

Ki d
∆Pref = u(t ) = − K p .ACE −
Ti ∫ ACE − K T dt ACE
d d (1.1)

ΔPref, or u(t), represents the control signal generated by the

controller. In addition, Kp, Ki, and Kd represent the proportional,
integral, and derivative controller gain values, respectively. ACE
indicates the area control error. Based on the IEEE standards,
ACE is defined as linear combinations of change in frequency
and tie-line power flow deviations between connected areas. So,
proper control of the ACE within the tolerance value keeps the
system parameters within the nominal value during sudden load
disturbance. The deviations in frequency and tie-line power flow
deviations will be zero when the value of ACE is zero. The value of
ACE is given in the following expression:

ACEi = ∆Fi . Bi + ∆Ptiei − j (1.2)

where B represents frequency bias constant. The subscripts i, j

indicate area, that is, i, j = 1, 2, and 3. In these conditions, opti-
mization techniques based on bio-inspired algorithms (BIAs) are
implemented to tune controller gain values for providing adequate
and suitable control signals by optimizing controller gain values.
Recently, different controllers have been designed based on bio-
inspired algorithms optimization techniques to tune the control-
ler gain values for powerful implementation of the LFC and AGC
of the power system.

1.2 BIO-INSPIRED OPTIMIZATION ALGORITHMS

Bio-inspired algorithm–based optimization techniques are imple-
mented based on the behavior of natural living beings. These algo-
rithms are encouraged by biological mechanisms. The natural
 Introduction   ◾   5

phenomena are observed by grouping these algorithms, which are

used to solve issues related the mathematics. The computational
algorithm–based techniques are designed and optimized based
on the inputs from the natural behavior of biological systems,
such as the bee or ant colonies.
The implementation of suitable secondary controllers is more
essential for getting superior, controlled dynamic performance
in the interconnected power system during sudden load demand
situations. In this book, a PID controller is considered a second-
ary controller. The major aim of implementing a secondary PID
controller is to regulate the power system response by eliminat-
ing or reducing the time-domain specification parameters, such
as steady-state error, minimum damping oscillations, peak fre-
quency, and the tie-power flow during sudden load demand in any
interconnected power system.
The tuning of optimal gain values of proportional, integral,
and derivative gain values, Kp, Ki, and Kd, respectively, are crucial.
First, find the integral controller gain value by keeping Ki con-
stant, and tuning the Kp gain value. Similarly, by keeping Ki and
Kp constant, one can then tune the derivative controller gain value
Kd. This type of tuning method is called a trial-and-error method.
The system response yields more damping oscillations in the fre-
quency and tie-line power flow deviations during sudden load
demand period. To deliver a good quality control signal to the
power system, the controller gain values should change equally.
During the higher-error value condition, the controller gain value
should change maximally and this process repeats until the error
value is zero. In this condition, BIA-based optimization tech-
niques are implemented to tune controller gain values to provide
adequate and suitable control signals by optimizing controller
gain values.
In a system, groups of components are connected together
to perform some specific operation or function. The output of a
system is controlled by varying input quantity of the system is
called a control system. The output of the system is the controlled
6   ◾    Bio-Inspired Algorithms in PID Controller Optimization

variable and input of the system is the command signal. Generally,

the system can be classified into two types, namely, open-loop
system and closed-loop system. In the open-loop system, the sys-
tem output is affected by the input signal. However, in the case of
a closed-loop system, the output of the system is determined by
the input of the system. For regulating the output of the system, a
controller device is introduced to the system. The controller modi-
fies the error signal by generating an appropriate control signal to
the system. The basic control signals that are commonly available
in the two-position analog controller are proportional, integral,
derivative, proportional–derivative, and proportional–integral–
derivative control actions. In this research work, the PID controller
is introduced as a secondary controller. The parameters of the PID
controller are optimized by using BIA-based optimization tech-
niques for superior system performance.

1.3 LITERATURE SURVEY
The gain values of the fuzzy PID controller are optimized using
teaching-learning based optimization (TLBO) that B. K. Sahu
et al. [1] proposed for tuning of fuzzy PID controllers for the AGC
of a two unequal-area thermal power systems. A hybrid particle
swarm optimization–pattern search (hPSO-PS) procedure is
applied in the AGC for optimizing the fuzzy PI controller gain
values in a multiarea interconnected power system [2]. R. K. Sahu
et al. [3] obtained the PI controller gain values using the minority
charge carrier inspired (MCI) algorithm in an AGC of an inter-
connected hydrothermal power system. The bat-inspired algo-
rithm has been applied to optimize the PI controller gain values
for a multiarea interconnected power-generating system to solve
LFC issues such as frequency deviations and tie-line power flow
deviations and stability of the power system [4]. A fractional
order PID (FOPID) controller has been designed for the LFC of
an interconnected power generating system, where the controller
gain values were optimized using a multiobjective optimization
method [5].
 Introduction   ◾   7

Dash et al. [6] used the cuckoo search (CS) algorithm to tune two
degrees of freedom (2-DOF) controllers for solving the AGC issue
(frequency deviations and tie-line power flow deviations within
interconnected power systems) in a multiarea interconnected
power system with several flexible alternating current transmis-
sion systems. A PD-PID cascade controller has been designed for
solving the AGC issue in multiarea interconnected thermal power
systems by considering the generation rate constraint nonlinear-
ity effect [7]. A hybrid firefly algorithm–pattern search (hFA-PS)
method designed controller has been applied for solving the AGC
issue in multiarea interconnected power systems by considering
the integral time absolute error objective function [8]. Sahu et al.
[9] implemented a hybrid local unimodal sampling (LUS) and
TLBO technique tuned fuzzy PID controller into the LFC of inter-
connected multisource power systems.
Shankar and Mukherjee [10] applied the quasi oppositional har-
mony search technique to optimized classical controller gain values
into the LFC of multiarea, multisource power generating-systems.
Vukarasu and Chidmbaram [11] used the bacterial foraging opti-
mization (BFO) algorithm to optimize the proportional–double
integral (PI2) controller in the AGC of interconnected power sys-
tems under deregulated environments. The fuzzy PID controller
parameters are optimized using the firefly algorithm, which have
been applied into the AGC of multiarea, multisource power systems
with a unified power flow controller (UPFC) and superconducting
magnetic energy storage unit by Pradhan et al. [12]. Sharma and
Saikia [13] used the grey wolf optimizer algorithm–based classical
controller in a multiarea solar thermal–thermal power system as a
secondary controller.
Francis and Chidambaram [14] proposed a teaching–learning-
based optimization technique for tuning of PI controller gain val-
ues and PI+ controller gain values. Shivaie et al. [15] proposed a
modified harmony search algorithm–tuned PID controller for the
LFC of interconnected nonlinear hydrothermal power systems.
The PI/PID controller gain values have been optimized using the
8   ◾    Bio-Inspired Algorithms in PID Controller Optimization

firefly algorithm in the LFC of multiarea interconnected thermal

power systems. The proposed optimization technique’s tuned con-
troller performance has been compared to the genetic algorithm,
bacteria foraging optimization technique, differential evolution
optimization algorithm, particle swarm optimization technique,
and Ziegler-Nichols technique–based controller performance of
the investigated power generating system [16]. Prakash and Sinha
[17] presented a neuro-fuzzy hybrid intelligent PI controller for
the LFC of a four-area interconnected power system. Farhangi
et al. [18] applied an emotional learning–based intelligent control-
ler for the LFC of an interconnected power system by consider-
ing the generation rate constraint nonlinearity effect. Farook and
Raju [19] proposed a hybrid genetic algorithm–firefly algorithm in
the AGC of an interconnected three-area deregulated power sys-
tem. Moreover, a self-adaptive modified bat algorithm has been
implemented for optimization of controller gain values in a four-
area interconnected power generating system [20].
The AGC of an equal three-area thermal–thermal–hydro
power system has been investigated with different classical con-
trollers [21]. The performance is compared to the fuzzy integral
double derivative (IDD) controller. The controller gain values are
optimized by implementing the BFO technique. The results estab-
lished that this technique is superior to existing methods. The
imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA) has been implemented
for the LFC of a three-area power system with different generating
units and a fractional order PID (FOPID) controller [22]. The sim-
ulation result proved the superiority of the system performance
with ICA-based controller compared to the existing controller.
Some other types of controllers and optimization techniques
used in the LFC of power systems include the fuzzy logic control-
ler [23], genetic algorithm (GA) [24], artificial neural network (ANN)
[25,26], variable structure control (VSC) [27], Lyapunov technique
[28], continuous and discrete mode optimization [29], adaptive
controller [30], parameter-plane technique [31], optimal control
[32], optimal tracking approach [33], decentralized controller [34],
 Introduction   ◾   9

ant colony optimization (ACO) [35–37], bacteria foraging opti-

mization (BFO) [38,39] artificial bee colony (ABC) [40], particle
swarm optimization (PSO) technique [41], stochastic particle
swarm optimization (SPSO) [42], bacterial foraging optimization
algorithm (BFOA) [43], bacterial foraging (BF) technique [44], bat-
inspired algorithm [45], beta wavelet neural network (BWNN) [46],
and cuckoo search (CS) [47,48].
From the aforementioned studies, it is clear that in recent years
several optimization techniques and optimized controller gain
values-based controllers are considered for improvement of power
system performances during sudden load demands.
http://taylorandfrancis.com
 CHAPTER 2

Load Frequency
Control of Single
Area Thermal
Power System
with Biogeography-
Based Optimization
Technique

T his chapter considers a load frequency controller for a

single area thermal power-generating unit by considering dif-
ferent bio-inspired algorithm (BIA)–based optimization techniques
for tuning PID (proportional–integral–derivative) controller per-
formance with 1% step load perturbation (SLP). The PID controller

11
12   ◾    Bio-Inspired Algorithms in PID Controller Optimization

is presented as a secondary controller to control the parameters

of the system within the specified value during the sudden load
disturbance. The gain values of the implemented controller are
tuned by using various bio-inspired algorithms, such as simulated
annealing, genetic algorithm, particle swarm optimization, and
biogeography-based optimization techniques.
The structure of this chapter is as follows. The first section,
“Investigated Thermal Power System,” presents the Simulink®
model of the investigated single-area thermal power system.
Section 2.2, “Controller Design and Objective Function,” pres-
ents the details of the proposed controller and the necessary cost
function for tuning of controller gain values. The subsequent sec-
tion, “Biogeography-Based Optimization Technique,” delivers the
proposed optimization technique details, and the “Results and
Analysis” section demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed
technique. The “Conclusion” describes the performance of differ-
ent BIA-based optimization techniques over the proposed opti-
mization technique.

2.1 INVESTIGATED THERMAL POWER SYSTEM

In order to model the investigated power system with the pro-
posed optimization based controller, a MATLAB ® Simulink®
model of the single-area thermal power system is illustrated in
Figure 2.1. A thermal power-generating system comprises a tur-
bine with a reheater, speed governor, generator unit, and PID
controller. A 1% SLP is applied into the power for the analysis
of power system with and without any load demand. The nom-
inal parameters of the investigated thermal power system are
as follows: Tg, governor time constant = 0.2 s; Kr, steam tur-
bine reheat coefficient = 0.333; Tr, steam turbine reheat time
constant = 10 s; Tt, steam turbine time constant = 0.3 s; Kp,
power system constant = 120 Hz pu–1MW; Tp, power system
time constant = 20 s; and R, speed regulation = 2.4 Hz pu–1MW.
 1 Kr.Tr.s+1 1 Kp
PID +− +
Tg.s+1 Tr.s+1 Tt.s+1 − Tp.s+1
PID controller Governer Reheater Turbine Generator
SLP
1/R Speed
regulator Thermal power system

ACE = delF U 1 delXE Kr.Tr.s+1 1 delPg Kp delF

PID +− +
Tg.s+1 Tr.s+1 Tt.s+1 − Tp.s+1
PID controller Governer Reheater Turbine Generator
SLP
1/R Speed
regulator
Thermal power system

PID controller +− GDB Governor Boiler dynamics Reheater Turbine GRC + Generator
−
SLP
Speed
1/R
regulator

FIGURE 2.1 Simulink model of single-area thermal power system.

LFC of Single Area Thermal Power System with BBO Technique   ◾   13
14   ◾    Bio-Inspired Algorithms in PID Controller Optimization

The area control error (ACE), which is the input of the investi-
gated power system, is specified as follows:

ACE = ∆f (2.1)

where Δf is the change in frequency deviation of the investigated

power system. Figure 2.1 illustrates the MATLAB Simulink of a
single-area thermal power system model.
The secondary PID controller is equipped for regulating power
system parameters during a sudden load demand condition. The
thermal power system incorporates the governor, reheater, tur-
bine, speed regulator, and generator units. When a load distur-
bance occurs in the open-loop power system, system parameters
are affected and yield more damping oscillations with steady
error. In order to overcome this issue, secondary controllers are
introduced to regulate power system parameters.

2.2 CONTROLLER DESIGN
AND OBJECTIVE FUNCTION
Generally, the PID controller consists of a proportional control-
ler, integral controller, and derivative controller. The proportional
controller steadies the gain, yet it yields a steady-state error. The
integral controller eliminates the steady-state error and the deriv-
ative controller reduces change of error rate. The structure of the
PID controller under concern is shown in Figure 2.2.
The PID controller input is the ACE and the output is the con-
trol signal (U), where the output is given as follows:

Ki d
∆Pref = U = − K P ⋅ ACE −
Ti ∫ ACE − K T dt ACE
d d (2.2)

where ΔPref = U is the output control signal, Ki is the integral

controller gain, Kp is the proportional controller gain, Kd is the
derivative controller gain, Ti is the integral time constant, Td is the
derivative time constant, and ACE is the area control error.
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
Anna complied. The tale had, indeed, been told many a time before
in Farleigh to the end of the Hollow; but though no narrator had
ever before employed such a jargon of slang as the other Miller girl
used, perhaps none had ever told it better nor more sympathetically.
The telling of it amused and interested Alice Lorraine, who was
already more drawn towards Anna Miller than she had been to any
girl she had known before, but it affected her mother more
powerfully. Henrietta Lorraine (‘Hetty’ was the little girl of the farm)
had been for years a cold, proud woman, a slave, unconsciously, to
her husband’s vast possessions. During the past six months,
following the disgrace of her husband and his commitment to prison,
her pride had become a sort of fierce arrogance, while her sense of
injury, her bitterness towards all the world had shut her within bars
hard as iron. But now as she sat quiet, the tension of months
relaxed, with the kitten in her arms, and listened to the tale the odd,
droll, charmingly pretty, appealing young girl rattled off so flippantly,
something began to melt within her. Nor was it merely the icy crust
that had protected her crushed feelings of late. As the kindly folk of
the story rose compellingly before her, called forth by the wand of
humourous sympathy of the yellow-haired fairy, and she saw not
only Reuben Cartwright and the forlorn cat, but Miss Penny and Mr.
Langley, the fat pony and the fat janitor who later was nearly to
burn the grammar school building to the ground,—as she saw all this
and more, the woman she had been for years was so moved that
she felt almost like the woman she might and should have been.
Alice got only the story Anna told. Her mother, who had been a
country child herself and whose natural sympathy was with country
folk and ways, got a broader view and a deeper vision. She felt
something genuine and fine and sincere and worth while in this bit
of village life,—something that was attainable to others. And it came
to her that possibly Alice’s life and even her own weren’t irretrievably
ruined and wrecked. In any event, terrible as had been the storm
which had overwhelmed them, in the restful atmosphere of this
place to which they had been forced to crawl for refuge, they could
at least draw long breaths of relief, and Alice might later find more
than refuge and relief.
At the end of the story, Anna rose hastily. “I must hike or Miss Penny
will be limping round to get tea,” she said. “Poor dear! She doesn’t
drive the fat pony herself now-a-days and can’t get out of the
phaeton alone for she has rheumatism; but she is as crazy about
kittens as I am and will be as pleased to hear that this mite has a
home.”
Holding out her hand a bit timidly, the girl was surprised to have
Mrs. Lorraine press it warmly.
“We are very grateful to you, Anna Miller, not only for the kitten but
for other things, for changing the current of our thoughts,” she said.
The following Sunday, Alice Lorraine appeared at church with Miss
Penny and Anna. Her suit was not new but it was more elegant than
anything worn in Farleigh. Alice was extremely pretty and had the
look of one who has, so to speak, always lain on rose leaves, and
Anna felt proud to walk up the aisle with such a distinguished-
looking girl. Miss Penny begged her to go home with them after
service but Alice wouldn’t leave her mother. She walked down to the
Hollow the next afternoon, however.
She couldn’t stay for tea, but Anna gave her a piece of cake and a
cup of chocolate. As Anna walked part way home with her, she
spoke of the cake.
“I wish I could cook,” she said. “I know nothing whatever about it,
and mother knows only what she learned before she was twelve,
and cook-books are such queer things to follow. I don’t mind eating
tinned things, but it’s hard on mother, though she never says
anything. And besides,—O Anna, you wouldn’t believe it, but I hardly
know my mother. At home after I was through with nurses and
governesses, she went her way and I mine as everyone seems to do
in the city. And now—I care for her more than I ever dreamed, but I
don’t seem to be able to show it or to take care of her.”
Anna talked it over with Miss Penny that night and on Saturday
morning Alice came over and watched Anna make bread, cake and
cookies. Miss Penny was in the kitchen the greater part of the time
and Alice took to the odd, inconsecutive, warm-hearted little lady as
warmly as others had always done, so that on a second Saturday
they were like three girls together. Alice began to frequent the house
at all hours. And Miss Penny, who was one of the best housewives in
the two villages and who had taught Rusty and Anna and through
them their mother, gave the girl the best of instruction in cooking
and all sorts of domestic matters, besides amusing and entertaining
her with other stories than the tale of Reuben and the tramp cat
which she gravely related to Alice the first time the two were alone
together.
“O Miss Penny, the days fly by as they never did before and I wake
so happy every morning that I am ashamed of myself!” Alice cried
one afternoon as she waited for Anna to come from the academy.
“Ashamed, Alice?”
The girl paled. “Yes, Miss Penny, because of my father. You know
about him?”
“Yes, dear, I know. At first I was sorry that people in the village
should know, but now I really think it best. After all, newcomers are
discussed just so much, and—of course there aren’t many
newcomers now-a-days—not that there ever were many. Anna’s
family were the last to move into Farleigh before you and your
mother. That was when Freddy was a baby—Freddy, you know isn’t
the one who looks after my pony. That’s Frank. He does very well,
but of course Reuben taught him, and Rusty’s brother—and of
course, Anna’s—couldn’t help doing well. But I felt as if I ought to
sell both the cows. It’s a pity for Seth Miller with all his work to have
to keep the milking in mind. There’s only the one cow—Mr. Mudge is
keeping the other—and Seth thinks the world of Reuben and knows
Reuben would feel terribly to have the other cow disposed of—I
don’t mean killed of course, though that is the way they speak of
killing poor cats and kittens. And that reminds me, Alice. How is
yours?”
As Alice would have replied, a peculiar knock sounded on the door.
Alice asked if she should answer it. But Miss Penny, whose face had
lighted up, said that it was Mr. Langley, and that he would let himself
in.
“He raps in a peculiar way—it’s really a bar of music. He and
Reuben’s father always used it. He—O Mr. Langley, how good you
are!”
“Good to myself, yes indeed. I am really self-indulgent when I come
in here, Miss Penny.”
“I appeal to you, Miss Lorraine,” he said as he shook hands with the
girl. “Do you consider it an act of goodness or the gratification of a
desire for refreshment to come to see Miss Penny?”
“It’s a case of receiving wholly on my part,” asserted Alice with a shy
smile for Miss Penny.
“I interrupted a conversation. Pray go on with it and allow me to
listen,” he begged.
“Dear me, Mr. Langley, I am ashamed to say that for the moment I
can’t recollect what we were discussing,” said Miss Penny in dismay.
Alice smiled, but wanly. “I was telling Miss Penny that I am really too
happy, Mr. Langley,” she said. “I am happier than I have ever been
before. As far back as I can remember, the days were always long, I
got tired of everything and was bored the greater part of the time. I
cared for nothing but my music, and I never enjoyed that as I do
going about with Anna and listening to Miss Penny and learning to
make bread and doughnuts. And—there’s poor mother at home
thinking of—my father. And I-I have to make myself think of him.”
“But my dear Miss Lorraine, you are doing this in large part for your
mother. You are sitting at the feet of Miss Penny in order to learn
how to make one of the most attractive cottages ever built into a
real home for her. And while you are broadening your life with these
new influences which seem more congenial than those you have
known before, no doubt you are enriching your mother’s life as well?
You tell her of all that takes place, I dare say?”
“Everything. And she is interested and forgets—for a little. And Anna
goes in and—mother loves Anna already.”
He turned smilingly to Miss Penny. “Anna is more like you, Miss
Penny, after all, than any other of your foster children,” he said and
then went on talking to Alice.
As he rose to take leave, he told Alice he hoped her mother might
meet Miss Penny before long. At the door, he kept her a minute.
“Don’t feel guilty when you forget your father and don’t force
yourself to think of him, Miss Lorraine,” he said earnestly. “Open
your whole heart to the new life and help your mother in her much
harder task of reconciling herself to a new future. Write your father,
and if he gets the impression he should from your letters, he will
conclude that your life isn’t going to be spoiled and—why, that will
surely make a great difference to him.”
There was a blur before the girl’s eyes so that she couldn’t see the
minister’s figure at the gate. Instead of returning to the sitting-room
she stole upstairs for a few minutes of silence in Anna’s large, pretty
chamber where she was always free to go.
Entering the room, she started at sight of a figure on the bed. As
she saw that it was Anna and that her face was buried in the pillow,
her heart grew cold. What had happened. Or hadn’t anything
happened? Was it that, all the while the girl was devoted to other
interests than her own, some secret sorrow was eating at her heart?
 CHAPTER VII
EARLY the following afternoon Anna Miller made her way to the
parsonage.
She announced the fact immediately that she couldn’t stay long to-
day. For already the clever girl had, as she put it, ‘sized up’ the lady
of the parsonage and knew better than to wait until later and then
‘spring’ the unwelcome fact upon her.
“O Anna, with all the long week, counting Sunday, and with a long
forenoon on Saturday, it seems as if you might spare me Saturday
afternoon,” protested the invalid.
“I can usually, Mrs. Langley, but you see I am going away Monday
morning early and there’s my packing and ever so many things to
attend to besides going over home, as I always do on Saturday, to
see if ma’s clothes and pa’s ties and shirts and the boys’ are in
Sunday-go-to-meeting shape,” Anna explained.
She waited for Mrs. Langley to ask where she was going or to evince
some interest in her journey. Not that she was the sort of person to
crave such attention. But the more she saw of Mrs. Langley, the
more she realized how self-centered her life had made her. In a
certain sense, it wasn’t her fault. But for the sake of Mr. Langley, his
wife must somehow be induced to think of other folk or other
concerns than herself, her dead baby, and the baby’s tombstone.
And in that the only person she really had anything to do with was
Anna it would have been encouraging to have her show some faint
interest in her comings and goings when they did not lead to the
parsonage, or the cemetery on yonder hillside.
But Mrs. Langley’s only concern was for her precious Saturday.
“But you will surely be back before the end of the week, Anna?” she
asked.
“I suppose I shall,” said Anna soberly. “But I may not be able to
come here for a fortnight. I shall have a lot of studying to do to
make up my work at school.”
“Isn’t Mr. Langley on the school committee?” demanded his wife.
Wondering at her acquaintance with even so little of current history,
Anna told her that he was chairman.
“Very well. Then he can arrange so that you needn’t make up the
time and you can come here just the same.”
“O Mrs. Langley, I don’t think he could or would do that, and
anyhow I wouldn’t have him,” Anna protested. “For after all, I’m
really crazy about school. I believe I like it all the better for knowing
the world a bit. As a matter of fact, you know, I could give Mr.
Phillips points. And I couldn’t not make up certain things. For
example, there’s the Peloponnesian War. The plague began
yesterday and,—O dear, like as not when I get back I shall find the
whole bunch stark dead. And then there are those poor Helvetians
all packed up and ready to hike with their babies and cattle and pups
and duds and all,—and those blooming Roman soldiers ready to
drive ’em straight back. I’ve simply got to see what happened to
them. They had pluck—and yet, I can’t for the life of me understand
how they had the heart to burn down their houses and their fields of
grain. I dare say it showed their faith in God, but they might have
wanted to show their grandchildren years afterwards where they had
lived.”
“I don’t remember ever hearing about them. Are they in the Bible,
Anna?” Mrs. Langley asked, and before Anna could answer, bade her
tell their tale.
Surprised and delighted, the girl complied. Not at all a scholar, Anna
Miller nevertheless gleaned all sorts of riches from text books that
are desert wastes to the majority of young folk. And now, relating
the history of the Helvetians so far as she had followed it, in the
graphic account Julius Caesar gives of the unhappy impulse towards
migration of these people pent up in an inland island, she made it as
interesting as a fairy tale to a child. Mrs. Langley listened spell-
bound. And though Anna was disappointed to have her hark back to
her usual subject, even the momentary interest in something foreign
to it counted for something.
“It must have been hardest of all for them to leave their graveyards
behind them,” she murmured, “for mothers to leave their babies’
graves.”
“And widows their husbands’,” Anna added. “And yet, Mrs. Langley,
there’s worse than that. Now my friend that I am going back to the
city to see lost her husband in the summer and now she’s sick
herself, and there’s her baby. If she should—well, it must be no end
harder for one to think of dying and leaving one’s baby alone in the
world than to move away from somewhere and leave the grave of a
baby whose soul is all safe.”
“Your friend must be older than you, Anna,” Mrs. Langley observed
irrelevantly.
“Two years, but we were the best of friends. She was at the ribbons
with me at Mason and Martin’s and Joe was at the soda fountain. He
was the nicest boy—and the thinnest! My goodness! Matches would
seem as big as the pillars of the Squire Bennet place at Wenham
compared with his legs. He and Bessy were married and went to
housekeeping in two rooms and were happy as kings. Joe was sick
after a while and Bessy came back to work beside me. Then the
baby came and Joe went back to work before he was able. He
looked so bum they wouldn’t have him at the soda fountain but put
him in the stock-room where his poor phiz, that looked for all the
world like an interrogation point, wouldn’t queer the whole concern.
It must have been awfully hard for him there, but he stuck it out
until last August when he died. And now poor Bessy thinks she’s
dying and wants to see me.”
“I hate to have you go,” said the invalid with some warmth, and
even thought to ask who was going with her.
“O, I’m going by my lone. I’m good for it. But I think I will put up my
hair so as to look more responsible.”
“O Anna, don’t do that. I wouldn’t have you do that for the world!”
cried Mrs. Langley. “I like it just as it is. You see it is just the colour
my baby’s would have been and I was in hopes hers would be curly,
too. I should never have braided hers, though.”
Anna forgot that she ought to be on her way home and pulled her
braid over her shoulder and looked at it admiringly.
“I wish you would undo it and let me see it all spread out,” Mrs.
Langley said almost eagerly. And Anna was more than ready to
gratify her curiosity.
Untying the bow at the end of the long, heavy, wavy plait, she
loosed the strands and spread out the silky yellow mass until it
enveloped her like a golden mantle. Mrs. Langley leaned towards
her, gazing on the splendour in fascination, reaching out presently to
stroke it with her lean witch’s fingers. And whenever Anna made a
move to gather it in she uttered a cry of protest. And the vain girl
yielded and forgot everything except to wish that there were a
mirror in the room.
But when the clock struck five, she started, quite aghast. Seizing her
hat and jacket, she said an hasty farewell and fled, the cloud of her
hair all about her.
As she went, people rushed to their windows to see the girl’s
wonderful hair, gazing spell-bound until she was out of sight.
Afterwards, when they got their breath, some said the other Miller
girl had assurance to flaunt her single charm thus boldly. But no one
so took the matter to heart as the Reverend Russell Langley, who
met her as he returned from a call at the Hollow.
Anna hadn’t time even to pause, and Mr. Langley thought she was
ashamed to do so. He took it for granted that the girl had set out
from home with this almost immodest splendour of yellow tresses all
about her simply to display it, and he felt bewildered and ashamed
and grieved. He shook his head sadly. He had known that Anna was
vain—everyone knew it. But her vanity had always seemed innocent
and harmless, a part of her droll charm. The girl had seemed too
unselfish, too eagerly active in behalf of others, to have leisure or
desire for deliberate advertising of her own beauty. She was, he had
to acknowledge now, quite different from Rusty. He began to
understand why people referred to her as the other Miller girl.
Reaching home, he found, after much searching, a sermon on
humility he had preached fifteen years before. Putting aside the
sermon he had ready for the morrow, he began to revise this.
Revision turned out to mean re-writing practically the whole
discourse, and it was midnight before he rose from his desk. The
new sermon was less severe and dogmatic than the one of the man
of thirty which it replaced, but its tone was wholesome and effective.
And though the preached hoped that Anna Miller would not realise
that her vanity had been the occasion of it, he trusted that she
would nevertheless take the precepts to heart.
As it was, Anna listened gravely, as she almost invariably did, to
every word of the sermon. But she did not forget to flop her yellow
braid over her shoulder and as the choir rose to sing, and her sweet,
true voice rang out, the girl was not unaware that she was
conspicuous for that as well as for her personal appearance.
But she had forgotten all that when she went in to see Mrs. Lorraine
that afternoon to thank her for allowing Alice to make it possible for
her to go to her friend. As a matter of fact, Mrs. Lorraine had been
shocked when Alice came home Friday evening and told her of the
offer she had made to take Anna’s place at Miss Penny’s while she
was away. She declared that Alice should not do it. The bitterness
which had seemed to disappear had come back, and Alice had been
greatly disturbed. Mrs. Lorraine had finally yielded grudgingly, but
she felt hurt and injured and there had been a perceptible coolness
between mother and daughter since. They had never been close
together, but of late they had been nearer to one another than ever
before. The more Alice associated with Anna and Miss Penny, the
more yearningly her heart went out towards her mother, and this
coldness that was almost estrangement hurt her keenly.
She was grateful that Anna did not feel any want of cordiality in her
mother. Mrs. Lorraine received her thanks quietly and when Anna
explained the situation listened intently and questioned her
sympathetically. And she asked, almost impulsively, if Anna wasn’t
tired out.
“It’s just that I seem pulled so many ways at once, Mrs. Lorraine,”
Anna said. “Really, I ought not to be at Miss Penny’s. With Rusty at
college, I ought to be at home. Ma and pa need a daughter there
the worst way. I get over all I can, but they’re so glad to see me and
so sorry to have me go just across the street that it breaks my heart.
But someone has to be with Miss Penny. She was goodness itself to
Rusty and to the whole family, and I love her as if she were my
favorite aunt of all and just love to be with her. And now there’s Mrs.
Langley. She’s queer. Dick’s hatband had nothing on her when it
comes to being odd. And yet I take to her and would enjoy sort of
mothering her if it didn’t take me away from Miss Penny and my own
family. And then again, there’s Mr. Langley.”
On a sudden, tears filled the girl’s eyes. But she smiled through
them.
“It’s rum to be so popular, isn’t it Alice?” she asked. “Wouldn’t you
think I was Brother Atlas or Father Time? The fact is, I’m only the
other Miller girl trying to pretend I’m Charley-on-the-spot.”
Mrs. Lorraine bent and kissed her. “You are a dear, absurd, unselfish
child!” she cried warmly. “And if ever there’s anything Alice or I can
do to help you out in any way, you must come straight to us. Mustn’t
she, Alice?”
“Yes, indeed,” agreed Alice with shining eyes, and coming to her
mother kissed her shyly.
Both girls would have thought that Mrs. Lorraine had unbent as far
as possible. But she was to go yet further. On the afternoon of the
first day Alice spent with her, Miss Penny had Frank Miller drive her
over to Farleigh with the fat pony. She returned with Mrs. Lorraine,
whom she had persuaded to visit her as long as Alice stayed. Mrs.
Lorraine was as much surprised as her daughter, but somehow,
there was no resisting Miss Penny.
She expected to spend the greater part of her time in her chamber,
but she did no such thing though she was left free. The housework
was inconsiderable. Alice, who took to it strangely, loved to help Miss
Penny, who wasn’t willing to relinquish the whole. But Mrs. Lorraine
found herself wishing to be near the centre of things in the kitchen
or living-room and drifted thither before the first forenoon was over.
It seemed to her that the very thing her sore heart and worn nerves
had craved was to bask in the homely warmth of this simple, cosy
household. For the first day she sat in an arm chair with Silvertoes,
who had been included in the invitation, in her lap. But on the
second, she felt, after another wonderful night, so much alive that
she wished to be active. She said to Miss Penny that she should like
to learn to cook—to complete an education in domestic matters
begun in her childhood and interrupted by the receipt of a large
inheritance which drove her family off the farm. Wherefore, at Miss
Penny’s suggestion, Alice was sent off nutting, and the two women
had a long, happy morning together.
An inborn taste for the domestic and a really good foundation made
Mrs. Lorraine a still readier pupil than her daughter had been. Miss
Penny’s surprise at her skill drew forth a longer account of Mrs.
Lorraine’s early life. Miss Penny spoke of her own girlhood and other
forgotten details came back to her guest. And when Alice returned at
noon of the second day, she could scarcely credit what she saw and
felt. Her mother and Miss Penny appeared to be warm friends.
Anna had already taught Alice to love the out-of-doors, and though it
was less pleasant alone, she took advantage of her opportunity and
remained out all that she could, believing that her mother and Miss
Penny’s friendship would progress the more rapidly in her absence.
Mr. Langley called one day, and Mrs. Lorraine saw him and liked him.
She told her daughter what he had said of Richard Cartwright, the
man who had built their cottage, and expressed apprehension that
he might find a bare-looking place when he should call. Whereupon
it came to Alice that she might do something to make it look more
attractive before they returned to it.
She went over next day. As she sauntered towards Farleigh, she
thought of the man who had died before he had attained his heart’s
desire. She did not think of him as Reuben’s father except to wish
that everyone wouldn’t dwell so constantly upon the son as never to
drop any hint to gratify her hungry, rather mournful curiosity
concerning the father.
He and Mr. Langley had been intimate friends, so that Mr. Langley
would be able to tell one all about him. Alice was pleased to reflect
that since her mother had met and liked Mr. Langley there was no
bar against her becoming more friendly with him. She wondered
how long she must wait before she should feel free to question him
concerning Richard Cartwright. The girl sighed as it came to her that
he, too, would most likely insist upon talking about Reuben instead.
She would probably hear the famous tale of the cat in the primeval
pine tree again and other less familiar incidents connected with the
model youth; but surely after he had exhausted the list—and she
would be patience itself—he would be ready to speak of the older
and more interesting Cartwright.
The outline of the cottage was charmingly picturesque. As Alice
turned into the lane to-day it struck her afresh and more strongly
than ever. As a matter of fact, it was the first time she had
approached it when her heart had not been burdened with the sense
of her mother’s unhappiness. Relieved of that burden, dimly aware,
indeed, of her mother’s very pleasant preoccupation and quite
forgetting her father, who had always been a stranger to her, Alice
saw with new eyes and sped on with a light step and a sense of
well-being that she had never known before.
The little porch with settees built in invited the comer to pause to
contemplate the outlook. Alice had never before had leisure to heed
or even to feel the invitation, but to-day she accepted gratefully.
Throwing herself down, she gazed happily out through a break in
the wall of foliage bordering the lane to the distant hills. But very
shortly, content changed to vague melancholy which became
poignant. The lilac and blue of those lovely folded hills convinced her
that Dick Cartwright had had even that in mind when he planned
this cottage and this porch. And he must have sat here where she
was sitting now on many a day at sunset and in the early dusk and
under the evening stars thinking of the organ, which must have
seemed to come nearer and nearer, and dreaming out melodies to
play thereon.
The girl clasped her hands. How terribly sad his fate had been! He
had lost everything and died and been forgotten. Perhaps if he had
had the organ to comfort him, he wouldn’t have felt the death of his
wife so desperately, and wouldn’t have taken to drink and met his
death. If only someone had given it to him! There were so many
people in the world to whom the cost of a pipe organ would have
meant little or nothing. Why, once her own father could have given
away any number of them easier than she and her mother could
dispense coppers to-day. She could have done it herself.
Well, there was nothing to do now except to make some atonement
for the cruel fate that had come upon Richard Cartwright. It wasn’t
her fault, but it might have been, and the least she could do would
be to make whatever amends might be possible now. Being the
daughter of a convict, she would of course never marry, and she
would devote her life to the memory of this genius who had died
betimes. She would fulfil her duty to her mother but all her leisure
thought and time and money (she would earn some in a manner to
be determined later) would go towards reviving his memory and
keeping it green. She would build the organ just as he had planned
and then—why not turn the cottage into a sort of museum—the
Richard Cartwright Memorial? Or perhaps better than a museum, it
might be a kind of musical centre where famous organists would
give concerts in his memory to the people of the countryside who
hadn’t appreciated him in life and where poor young men might
come to practise and improvise.
Immensely cheered, Alice took the keys from the pocket of her
jacket to enter the cottage and see if the whole lower floor could be
made into one apartment. But in her eagerness, she put the wrong
key in the lock. The second key, marked Shop opened a small
separate building hidden in the shrubbery in the rear. There was a
shop at Miss Penny’s too, and she had said every house had had one
in her girlhood, and this one, which did not match the cottage,
evidently belonged to an earlier dwelling. It occurred suddenly to
Alice that she might find something there belonging to Dick
Cartwright, some memorials to be put behind glass in a cabinet near
the organ.
The sun had dropped below the horizon, but the girl felt she could
make an hurried survey before dusk—indeed, she must. She ran
quickly through the thicket to the door of the shop and succeeded in
turning the key in the rusty lock. She stole softly in, awe rather than
dread hushing her steps.
The first view was disappointing. The place was piled full of old
boxes and crates and stacks of yellowed newspapers. But in the
corner she caught glimpses of odd chairs and stands and bits of
furniture which might prove of interest if one could ever get at them.
A narrow stairway with ladder-like ascent told her what a more
observant person would have implied from the window in the gable
above the door—that there was a second storey.
Catching her skirts in her hand, Alice climbed up. Her spirits rose the
moment her head cleared the railing above. She stepped directly
into a little chamber which had not been converted into a store room
or dumping ground and stood still to gaze about. It must have been
left as it was when Dick Cartwright went away.
There was a long carpenter’s bench with an iron contrivance
fastened at the end on one long side, and a smaller table opposite
containing rusty tins with a swinging shelf above holding buckets
that had once contained paint. A stand and a rocking chair stood
near the window at the further end and a dark bench or couch was
drawn into the shadow of the rafters. A secretary with drawers
below the writing shelf and shelves above with glass doors stood
near the other window which looked towards the house. A chair
stood before it—how many years had it stood there?—and careless
of dust, Alice seated herself in it.
The glass doors were open. A few old, mildewed books stood on the
shelves. They might form a nucleus of the memorial library, but Alice
Lorraine sighed. For the nonce she had forgotten that Dick
Cartwright was dead. Half mechanically she pulled out one of the
little drawers below. A pile of letters met her view. The uppermost
bore a superscription. Either dusk or faded ink made it very faint,
but the girl read it—Mr. Richard Cartwright, Farleigh. They seemed to
her the saddest words she had ever read.
Forgetting everything else, the girl sat by the desk while the
shadows in the corners increased, encroaching more and more upon
her island of twilight. Then on a sudden, strange, nameless terror
seized upon her. She felt as she had once or twice felt in the night
upon awaking without apparent cause from sound sleep. Her hair
seemed to rise from her head and cold drops stood out on her brow
and lips.
There was someone else in the room! For some seconds the girl sat
motionless, fearing to stir, to draw breath. Then she turned her head
ever so slightly and cautiously to see how near she was to the stair.
Two steps would bring her thither. She gazed as in fascination upon
the space for some moments, then slowly, breathlessly turned her
head in the opposite direction.
Nothing met her gaze and she grew bolder—or at least less fearful.
Turning about in the chair, though noiselessly, she surveyed the
room. There was nothing to be seen. She peered in every direction.
The corners were dark but not suspiciously so. It seemed as if there
were something odd about the look of the couch, but she could
reach the stairway, rush down and be out of the door before anyone
or anything could reach her thence. She rose softly to her feet.
For a little she stood still. Then she tiptoed quietly towards the dark
bench or couch beneath the rafters, peering before her all the while.
Suddenly she paused.
Her horror-stricken eyes made out the outlines of a dark figure on
the couch, an human being, a man who looked to her frightened
gaze of giant size. His eyes were closed. He was asleep—or dead?
Alice Lorraine stood still trying to think. If the man were asleep, he
was a drunken tramp and she must flee. If he were dead—O, so
much more must she fly! Not for the world would she be alone with
a dead man, a corpse. She must——
On a sudden the figure moved. The man’s eyes opened wide.
 CHAPTER VIII
BEFORE the man on the old couch realized the actuality of the
situation and sprang to his feet, his bewildered, incredulous eyes
took in perforce the vision of a tall, graceful young girl with dark
bands of hair wound about her small head and dark brows and eyes
conspicuous in the dusk because of the pallor of her face. But pale
as she was, and weak and faint and confused, Alice Lorraine’s fear
took flight almost immediately. The first movement of the unknown
man startled only to reassure her. He sprang to his feet, but only to
shrink back into the corner as if to allow her to fly if she would.
He waited a moment for that before he spoke. In the inconsiderable
interval, Alice, shaken as she was, saw the man so clearly that she
could have given a fairly accurate description of him if she had never
seen him thereafter. She saw that he was tall, thin and gaunt, but
that his face, worn as it was, was almost the face of a boy. That
must have been because of his eyes, which were deep set and wide
apart, not large nor dark of colour but at once shy, kind and
appealing. As he started to speak, it came to the girl that he was the
very image of the man upon whom her thoughts had been dwelling
from the moment of her leaving the Hollow, except that he was
thinner, more worn, older (save for his eyes) and much more
shabby. But gaunt as the man was, he was no ghost.
“I beg your pardon. I must have frightened you,” he murmured in a
gentle, deprecatory voice which would have been exactly the right
sort of voice for the dead musician and which would of itself have
reassured Alice had the dusk been so deep as to veil the kindliness
of his countenance.
“I was—startled,” the girl gasped. “I didn’t know—I never dreamed
——”
“Of course you didn’t. It was unpardonable in me,” he declared. “But
I believed the house yonder was unoccupied. There was no one
there all yesterday and no light at night. I could see that there had
been someone living there, but I supposed whoever it was had gone
—vamoused as we say in the West. I wouldn’t however,—at least I
hope I wouldn’t have tried to enter that in any case. But I know this
old shop as a boy and I couldn’t resist making an attempt to get in
here. Then—I got to thinking of old times and—I have walked many
miles during the last week—I threw myself down on the old lounge
and fell asleep.”
He raised his eyes almost ingenuously to her, for the moment a shy
boy.
“I hate to think what a sad shock it must have been to you coming
upon me so,” he said contritely. “You look ready to drop. Won’t you
sit down? The chair over yonder by the stair railing is all right for I
dusted it with my pocket handkerchief.”
“Thank you,” the girl faltered, “but——”
He understood. “Naturally you would like to get out of here right
away? May I help you down? The stairway is steep and narrow and
it is dark below. But perhaps you would rather go alone?”
The girl’s heart throbbed strangely.
“I should like to get out into the air,” she said. “I can get down all
right, but——”
“May I come after and—explain myself?” he asked. “I want you to
understand and to feel safe from further shocks of the sort.”
She murmured a confused affirmative and started to feel her way
down.
“Do you mind my shining a light?” he asked. “I have an electric
flash-light in my pocket, but please don’t think me a professional
burglar for all that.”
Alice tried to laugh, though she was still shaken. He lighted her
down and out, took her key, locked the door and handed it back to
her.
“You live in the house?” he asked.
Alice explained that she lived there with her mother but that they
were visiting in the part of the village called South Hollow. She knew
that she shouldn’t be saying this to a stranger whom she had found
in the upper storey of the shop; but for herself she felt that there
are strangers and strangers.
“I know the Hollow,” he said. “I lived about here as a boy. Are you
going back now?”
Alice replies that she ought to be, but that she felt as if she must sit
down for a little first and would go up to the porch. He accompanied
her thither and asked if he might wait. And when she gave the
desired permission, he suggested that she get herself a wrap from
the house. As she complied with the suggestion, the girl seemed to
feel her mother’s horror. He unlocked the door for her and waited on
the walk below. When she came out and dropped down upon one
settee, he seated himself opposite.
“I want to apologise for my thoughtlessness which might have had
serious consequences,” he said quietly. “And I give you my word that
I will not come near the place again so that you needn’t feel nervous
about coming in at any time. And—neither need your mother. I
suppose you will tell her?”
“No, I don’t think I will,” said the girl slowly. “It would frighten her
unnecessarily and what’s the use?”
“None if you feel so,” he said. “I confess that I shall be very glad if
you do not, though I wouldn’t stand in the way of your doing so if
you feel it right. As a matter of fact, I don’t want anyone to know I
am about here—or that anyone is about who is not here ordinarily.”
“I won’t mention it,” she said.
“You are very good,” he returned simply.
For a little there was silence between them. Then he spoke.
“I really want to stay about for a little,” he began deprecatingly. “I
have only just come, and—perhaps you wouldn’t mind if I promise to
keep away from here? I have been away a long time. All sorts of
things have happened to me in the interval and also, I dare say, to
the people in Farleigh I used to know. I am living and working in the
Middle West. I saved up money to take a vacation and come East
and look around. I don’t want people to see me but I want to try to
see some of those I used to think a lot of. You will believe me, won’t
you, when I say that I have no other purpose in mind?”
“Of course I will,” the girl cried warmly.
“Thank you. It might well look queer to you for me to be skulking
about, but I simply cannot let anyone know anything about me, and
yet I long above all things to find out about old friends—who is alive
and—and all that. I thought it would be simple, for it is a very long
time and I have changed so that I felt I was safe. But I came upon a
drummer in New York who had known me only slightly and he
recognised me. That took away my nerve. I couldn’t bluff now. So
there’s nothing to do but to spy around nights. I can only see who’s
here and who——”
“If you don’t see them you won’t think they’re dead?” protested the
girl.
“The ones I care for would be dead if they weren’t here,” he said
quietly.
He said this so exactly as Dick Cartwright would have said it, that it
came to Alice Lorraine that it was not unlikely that he was a relative
of the dead man. He looked enough like him—or like the image in
Alice’s mind which people who had known him had furnished
material for—to be his brother. He wasn’t old enough to be his father
nor young enough to be his son. Suppose it was really Dick
Cartwright that the stranger had gone through so much to come and
look up? How terribly sad to find him dead! But if that should be the
case, it would, perhaps, be the kindest thing to tell him at once. As
she felt for words to introduce the subject, it came to the girl that he
would feel somewhat comforted to hear of her idea of a memorial.
“I wonder,” she began almost eagerly, then started again quietly.
“The man that built this house—the shop was built years earlier, they
tell me—he was—I wonder if he was here in your day? His name
was Richard Cartwright.”
“O yes, I knew Cartwright,” he returned not at all enthusiastically.
“You may not have heard—that he is dead?” she said softly.
“I understood he was. He came to a bad end, I believe?”
“A sad end,” she amended with a trace of indignation. “He was killed
in a railway accident.”
“But he was himself a wreck long before that, I believe,” he
remarked. “However, you, being a stranger, would not have heard I
suppose. If you hadn’t come to live in his house, you would never
have heard of him at all and then only because it is a crazy-built
house.”
“It’s a charming house,” the girl declared.
“It is attractive to look at,” he agreed, peering through the dusk.
“But—he is pretty well forgotten by this time, I dare say?”
“Well, if he is, it isn’t fair! It isn’t fair at all!” she cried.
He had nothing to say.
“Mr. Langley, the minister, whom everybody looks up to, thought
ever so much of Mr. Cartwright. I don’t believe he has forgotten
him,” she asserted.
“Mr. Langley! You know Mr. Langley!” he exclaimed. “O tell me of
him, please.”
“I have only seen him to speak to him once. But he is—O very
impressive—I mean you take to him and feel he’s wonderful just as
those who have always known him do.”
“How does he look? But I shall see him. I must. I’ll see him to-night.
Does—but I ought not to let you stay here longer. It’s dark already.
My name is John Converse. May I ask to whom I am indebted for
this kindness?”
“I am Alice Lorraine,” she said, rising reluctantly.
He asked if he might walk to the Hollow with her. The girl hesitated,
wondering if it were safe for him.
“I am sorry I am so shabby, Miss Lorraine,” he said. “I have decent
clothes over at Marsden Bridge where I am staying—I didn’t dare
risk Wenham—but I am less likely to be recognized in these.”
They set out at once. But they had gone only a few rods beyond the
lane when the sound of light footsteps came clearly to them in the
absolute stillness of the damp autumn evening.
“That’s Mr. Langley,” he said quietly. “I’ll have to leave you. He’s the
one person I dare not meet even in black night.”
“O wait!” begged Alice in agonised whisper, panic stricken at the
thought that she would never see him again. But at that moment a
dark figure appeared in sight. Alice pressed the keys into the
stranger’s hand. “To-morrow at four. I’ll come to the shop,” she
whispered. John Converse disappeared into the bushes by the
roadside.
It was barely a minute before Mr. Langley had stopped and was
calling her by name.
“Why Miss Lorraine, is it indeed you?” he cried, surprised to see the
girl out alone after dark. He bade her come back as far as the
Smiths’ with him that he might get their horse and drive her back to
Miss Penny’s, giving her no opportunity to refuse.
They were hardly in the carriage when Alice turned to the minister.
“Mr. Langley, I heard lately of a man returning to his birthplace after
years of absence longing to find out all about the friends of his
boyhood and to see them if he could do it secretly. How would you
account for such a thing?”
Though Mr. Langley was quite accustomed to being bombarded with
odd questions, sometimes hypothetical, sometimes otherwise, he
hesitated now. He could not say to this girl whose father was in
prison that the obvious solution of her problem was that the man
had committed a crime and was a fugitive from justice or was
ashamed of his record. But before the pause became awkward an
happy suggestion came to his mind.
“Well, it might be another case of Enoch Arden,” he said. “This man
might have been missing for so long that he had been taken for
dead. That used to be very common in sea-faring places and among
sea-faring people. His wife or sweet-heart may have married
another. Or I can imagine a man being unwilling to make himself
known when relatives have come into possession of his more
material property.”
Alice’s heart leaped. She remembered Enoch Arden only vaguely, but
enough to feel a thrill at her heart at the thought of re-reading it in
her bed that night. There was a copy of Tennyson’s complete poems
in the book-case of the room she occupied—which was Reuben’s old
room.
The Smiths’ horse was a fine, strong creature which did not get
sufficient exercise, but he didn’t fancy starting out just at supper
time any more than Miss Penny’s fat pony, and he showed his
reluctance plainly. It came to Alice that this was her chance to find
out more of Richard Cartwright. She had said she would seize her
first opportunity. Besides, Mr. Converse had spoken slightingly of
him. It wouldn’t be bad to have Mr. Langley’s own word as to his
respect and admiration for the dead genius.
“O Mr. Langley, I have—well living in the cottage where he lived I
suppose it is natural for me to wonder about Mr. Cartwright,” she
observed. “But—no one seems to have anything to say about him.
Of course, he can’t be forgotten?”
“His son has rather overshadowed Cartwright’s memory,” Mr. Langley
remarked quietly.
“One certainly hears enough of him,” the girl remarked.
“O Miss Lorraine, I hope you and your mother aren’t getting the
impression that Reuben is anything of a prig,” he protested, “for he
isn’t. He is—well, he is four-square, that boy is, Miss Lorraine, and I
am happy to think that you will see him and judge for yourself in the
Christmas holidays.”
“I shall be pleased, I’m sure,” she murmured conventionally. “But I
can’t help being more interested in the father,—being so musical and
wanting a pipe organ in his house and dying before it ever came to
him. You knew him well, Mr. Langley?”
“Yes, I knew—and loved the man well,” he said sadly. “He was a
charming fellow, the best of companions and friends.”
“And he played—well?”
“To me he seemed almost a genius,” he replied, and Alice heard
herself repeating it triumphantly to John Converse.
“And yet—people have forgotten him already!” she exclaimed. “One
would think—O Mr. Langley, has there ever been any idea of a
memorial for him here in Farleigh?”
“O no, nothing of the kind,” he said in some surprise.
“But don’t you think there should be?” she cried.
“In his case, I think it is better as it is,” he said.
Alice’s heart sank. O dear, how terribly strict Mr. Langley was!
“You mean because he drank?” she asked.
“No, I didn’t mean that,” he said slowly. “I believe his taking to drink
as he did shows weakness, but I cannot judge Dick Cartwright too
severely for that. His artistic temperament made him different. Grief
was truly more terrible to him and temptation stronger than to less
gifted mortals. And when he went away and deserted his little son
he was hardly a responsible person.”
Alice was silent until lights twinkling in the Hollow reminded her that
she had only a few minutes. “But surely, Mr. Langley, you wouldn’t
have him forgotten?” she asked.
Mr. Langley realised that Alice Lorraine was a girl of some force. She
was apparently intent upon obtaining justice to Dick Cartwright’s
memory—which must not be.
“It’s this way, Miss Lorraine,—for I am going to tell you something in
strict confidence. It is for the best that Richard Cartwright be
forgotten save in the minds of a few friends. He died in a railway
wreck, it is true, but he was not an innocent victim. I myself thought
him to have been at first. I wrote to a friend in Chicago hoping he
might secure details which might be of comfort to Cartwright’s
friends and later to Reuben. But I regretted my action. My friend
learned that Cartwright had turned ruffian and desperado. He was a
member of a gang that killed the mail clerk and the engineer and
thus wrecked the train.”
He sighed. He didn’t say that if Cartwright had not been killed he
would to-day be serving life sentence in prison with others of the
gang who had escaped. But he felt compelled to add: “I dislike to
believe it and do not, but one of the men said that Cartwright fired
the shot that killed the mail clerk. So I do not wish any attempt to
revive the remembrance of Reuben’s father.”
“Of course not,” cried Alice. “I understand, and—thank you, Mr.
Langley. I am sorry to have awakened sad memories for you.”
The house was in darkness but Alice did not mind that. Relieved at
the absence of Miss Penny and her mother she rushed upstairs and
removing her wraps threw herself on the bed, her thoughts a wild
chaos. She did not know how long she had been there when she
heard her name called from below.
Going down, she found Anna’s brother Frank who had lighted the
lamp.
“I guess you were scared about your mother and Miss Penny,” the
boy said sympathetically, gazing at her white face. “They thought
you’d be, but they clean forgot. They’re over to our house. Anna’s
come home and—something terrible’s happened to her!”
 CHAPTER IX
ON the afternoon following Alice Lorraine’s strange adventure, Mr.
Langley sat at his study window gazing out over the pickets of the
paling towards the bushes and scrub trees which marked the line of
the river, but which, being mainly oaks, still hid the stream itself
from view. He was ready for Sunday even to the point of having
tidied his desk so that it looked unfamiliar. He was conscious—
vaguely conscious—of working better and more easily of late—with
more spirit. It might be that it was only a sort of rebound after the
period of depression into which he had fallen when someone had
reminded him of the fact that Ella May, whom he had always thought
of as a little girl, would now have been a woman grown, older than
her mother had been at her birth, and he had lost the child-
companion of his thoughts and wanderings. Even so, something
must have happened from without himself to pull him out of that
slough. That something was, of course, connected with his wife’s
new interest in life—at least in so much of life as was represented by
the other Miller girl.
It was probably recollection of Anna that made him think at first
glance that the figure coming along the avenue at a distance beyond
the lane was Anna, but, looking again, he saw that it was someone
else—one of the grammar school children, he fancied, though he
couldn’t seem to place her. He didn’t try long, for as his eyes dwelt
upon that particular spot, something disconcerting came suddenly to
him. Last evening as he had walked slowly homewards just before
full darkness, he had looked up at this point to see approaching him
the figures of a man and woman or youth and maiden whom one
glance showed to be intensely interested in one another or in a
common subject and who seemed to be strangers to him. Then he
had utterly forgotten them. For he had been arrested by a loud
chattering in a tree at the roadside and had gone to see why a
squirrel should be awake at that time of day. Then, walking on, he
had met Alice Lorraine. She was alone, but—the minister shook his
head. It seemed now to him that the figure of the girl he had seen
walking with the strange man was Alice Lorraine.
And yet—it couldn’t be. The man and woman weren’t figments of his
imagination, he was sure of that. They must, however, have turned
back at that point for some reason. And quite likely he had stood
looking for and calling to the squirrel longer than he had realised
and Alice had come along meantime.
The click of his gate recalled his thoughts sharply. On a sudden the
man sat erect and stared—almost glared at the strange yet familiar
figure he saw coming slowly up the flagged walk. For an instant he
could not believe it—could not credit the evidence of his eyes. Then
he recollected the preceding Saturday and—O, that sermon of
Sunday! And he groaned within his heart. Had that child been so
affected as to sacrifice her vanity thus? It was worse than absurd. It
was cruel, monstrous!
He went to the door to let her in.
“Anna, take off your hat,” he bade her, his voice stern through
repressed feeling.
Obeying silently, Anna Miller stood before him with downcast eyes.
She looked like a boy,—a handsome lad of perhaps a dozen years.
Her long yellow hair had been shorn. Parted at one side, the thick,
short unruly locks curled about her peaked face and pipe-stem neck,
emphasizing the childish delicacy of her features, the long curling
eyelashes and the sweet curve of her mouth. Later Mr. Langley
realised this, and the fact that though Anna looked younger, she had
somehow quite lost whatever it was in expression or countenance
that likened her to a doll. He, who had never acknowledged that
likeness while it existed, became aware of it after it had been
displaced by something else. But at the moment the loss seemed
irreparable and entire; the hard ugly fact seemed quite without
extenuation.
With an effort the girl raised her eyes and smiled.
“I wonder if Mrs. Langley wants to see me?” she asked.
“She always wants to see you, Anna,” he returned half absently,
frowning unconsciously. But as she made a move to go in, he
arrested her.
“Why have you done this foolish thing, tell me, child!” he demanded
reproachfully.
“Because—well—” Anna choked—“Honestly, Mr. Langley, I can’t tell
you now,” she faltered. “Ma cried and Miss Penny and even Mrs.
Lorraine, and Pa took to the wood-pile. It’s only—a sort of a joke.”
“A poor sort of joke, it seems to me,” he remarked and betook
himself to his study.
Mrs. Langley cried, too. But whereas one would have deprecated
Anna’s mother’s tears and Miss Penny’s, it was probably good for
Mrs. Langley to forget herself for the moment and be really moved
by something beyond her immediate narrow horizon. It was,
perhaps, fortunate for her that after all those arid, selfish years she
had tears of sympathy to weep.
Anna found her looking better. Since the girl had begun to visit her,
Mrs. Langley had slept at night and suffered less and less pain
during the day. This afternoon she wore an old-fashioned lace fichu
over her ugly Mother Hubbard gown which so relieved the sharpness
of her face and the yellow tone of her skin, that Anna had no
hesitation in kissing her when she saw that it was expected of her.
But as she stood before her, suddenly Mrs. Langley raised both
hands and cried out.
“Anna Miller! Your lovely hair!” she exclaimed incredulously, “you’ve
had it all cut off!” And covering her face with her hands she began to
weep.
Anna, who had had a hard week and a difficult home-coming, was
startled and distressed. She stood quite still with tightly clasped
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