appeared agreeable to her in Arthur's presence; and what was worse to
bear still, Arthur never appeared to advantage, in his sister's eyes, in
the presence of Miss Grove. The coquettish airs, and pretty tyrannical
ways assumed by the young lady toward her lover, might have excited only
a little uncomfortable amusement in the minds of the sisters, to see
Arthur yielding to all her whims and caprices, not as one yields in
appearance, and for a time, to a pretty spoiled child, over whom one's
authority is only delegated and subject to appeal, but _really_ as
though her whims were wisdom, and her caprices the result of mature
deliberation, was more than Graeme could patiently endure. It was
irritating to a degree that she could not always control or conceal.
The lovers were usually too much occupied with each other to notice the
discomfort of the sisters, but this indifference did not make the folly
of it all less distasteful to them: and at such times Graeme used to
fear that it was vain to think of ever growing content with the future
before them.

And almost as disagreeable were the visits which Fanny made with her
stepmother. These became a great deal more frequent, during the last
few months, than Graeme thought at all necessary. They used to call on
their way to pay visits, or on their return from shopping expeditions,
and the very sight of their carriage of state, and their fine array,
made Graeme and Rose uncomfortable. The little airs of superiority,
with which Miss Fanny sometimes favoured them, were only assumed in the
presence of mamma, and were generally called forth by some allusion made
by her to the future, and they were none the less disagreeable on that
account. How would it be when Fanny's marriage should give her
stepmother a sort of right to advise and direct in their household? At
present, her delicate attempts at patronage, her hints, suggestive or
corrective, were received in silence, though resented in private with
sufficient energy by Rose, and sometimes even by Graeme. But it could
not be so always, and she should never be able to tolerate the
interference of that vain, meddlesome, superficial woman, she said to
herself many a time.

It must be confessed that Graeme was a little unreasonable in her dread
and dislike of Fanny's clever stepmother. Sometimes she was obliged to
confess as much to herself. More than once, about this time, it was
brought home to her conscience that she was u