children, 'we shall know about going to
Indiana.'

'He says Mordaunt is as tall as he is, and that the house is quite
fixed for me; but I told him I must have one more term, and then I will
take you with me. Ah! I am glad to see the children in white. If you
would only change that plain black silk, you would receive so much more
consideration.'

'I don't want it, Cora, thank you,' said Averil, indifferently; and,
indeed, the simple mourning she still wore was a contrast to her
friend's delicate, expensive silk.

'But I want it for you,' pleaded Cora. 'I don't want to hear my Averil
censured for English hauteur, and offend my country's feelings, so that
she keeps herself from seeing the best side.'

'I see a very good, very dear side of one,' said Averil, pressing the
eager hand that was held out to her, 'and that is enough for me. I was
not a favourite in my own town, and I have not spirits to make friends
here.'

'Ah! you will have spirits in our woods,' she said. 'You shall show me
how you go gipsying in England.'

'The dear, dear woods! Oh, we must go!' cried the little girls.

'But it is going to be a town,' said Minna, gravely.

Cora laughed. 'Ah, there will be plenty of bush this many a day,
Minna! No lack of butternuts and hickories, I promise you, nor of
maples to paint the woods gloriously.'

'You have never been there?' said Averil, anxiously.

'No; I have been boarding here these two years, since father and
brothers located there, but we had such a good time when we lived at my
grandfather's farm, in Ohio, while father was off on the railway
business.'

A gong resounded through the house, and Averil, suppressing a
disappointed sigh, allowed Cora to take possession of her arm, and,
followed by the two children, became parts of a cataract of people who
descended the great staircase, and flowed into a saloon, where the
dinner was prepared.

Henry, with a tall, thin, wiry-looking gentleman, was entering at the
same time, and Averil found herself shaking hands with her brother's
companion, and hearing him say, 'Good evening, Miss Warden; I'm glad to
meet my daughter's friend. I hope you feel at home in our great
country.'

It was so exactly the ordinary second-rate American style, that Averil,
who had expected something more in accordance with the refinement of
everything about Cora, except a few of her tones, was a little
disappointed, and responded with difficulty; then, while Mr. Mull