eather read it aloud:

"Coming on Transcontinental. Arrive Grand
Central Terminal 9 P.M. the third.

"Helen Morrell."

"Now! What do you think of that, Pa?" demanded Flossie.

"'Helen Morrell,'" repeated Mr. Starkweather, and a person more observant
than any of his daughters might have seen that his lips had grown suddenly
gray. He dropped into his chair rather heavily. "Your cousin, girls."

"Fol-de-rol!" exclaimed Belle. "I don't see why she should claim
relationship."

"Send her to a hotel, Pa," said Flossie.

"I'm sure _I_ do not wish to be bothered by a common ranch girl. Why! she
was born and brought up out in the wilds; wasn't she?" demanded Hortense.

"Her father and mother went West before this girl was born--yes," murmured
Mr. Starkweather.

He was strangely agitated by the message. But the girls did not notice
this. They were not likely to notice anything but their own disturbance
over the coming of "that ranch girl."

"Why, Pa, we can't have her here!" cried Belle.

"Of course we can't, Pa," agreed Hortense.

"I'm sure _I_ don't want the common little thing around," added Flossie,
who, as has been said, was quite two years Helen's junior.

"We couldn't introduce her to our friends," declared Belle.

"What a _fright_ she'll be!" wailed Hortense.

"She'll wear a sombrero and a split riding skirt, I suppose," scoffed
Flossie, who madly desired a slit skirt, herself.

"Of course she'll be a perfect dowdy," Belle observed.

"And be loud and wear heavy boots, and stamp through the house," sighed
Hortense. "We just _can't_ have her, Pa."

"Why, I wouldn't let any of the girls of _our_ set see her for the world,"
cried Flossie.

Their father finally spoke. He had recovered from his secret emotion, but
he was still mopping the perspiration from his bald brow.

"I don't really see how I can prevent her coming," he said, rather
weakly.

"What nonsense, Pa!"

"Of course you can!"

"Telegraph her not to come."

"But she is already aboard the train," objected Mr. Starkweather,
gloomily.

"Then, I tell you," snapped Flossie, who was the most unkind of the girls.
"Don't telegraph her at all. Don't answer her message. Don't send to the
station to meet her. Maybe she won't be too dense to take _that_ hint."

"Pooh! these wild and woolly Western girls!" grumbled Hortense. "I don't
believe she'll know enough to stay away."

"We can try it," persisted Flossi