er daughters, and it had
certainly advanced him somewhat in her favour that his early
acquaintance with Miss Rexford was an undisputed fact; but in the light
of what Mrs. Rexford had just said of her daughter's good-heartedness
all assumed a different aspect. Mrs. Brown was in no way "highly
connected," belonging merely to the prosperous middle class, but, with
the true colonial spirit that recognises only distance below, none
above, she began to consider whether, in the future, her role should not
be that of mere kindness also. To do her justice, she did not decide the
question just then.

The voice of her youngest daughter was heard laughing rather
immoderately. "Indeed, Mrs. Bennett," she laughed, "we all heard him say
it, and, unlike you, we believed our ears. We'll draw up a statement to
that effect and sign our names, if that is necessary to assure you."

Her mother, approaching, detected, as no one else did, a strain of
hysterical excitement in her laughter, and bid her rise to come home,
but she did not heed the summons.

"Yes, he _did_ say it. That handsome brother of his, to whom I lost my
heart two weeks ago, does really--well, to put it plainly, knock animals
on the head, you know, and sell them in chops, and--what do you call it,
mamma?--the sirloin and brisket. 'How do you do, Mr. Trenholme? I want
some meat for dinner--chops, I think.' Oh, how I should love to go and
buy chops!"

Sophia was kneeling over a pile of work, folding it. She asked the
boisterous girl for the cloth she had been sewing, and her voice was
hard and impatient, as if she wished the talk at an end.

Mrs. Bennett arose and wrapped her cape about her thin shoulders, not
without some air of majesty. There was a bitter angry expression upon
her delicate face.

"All that I wish to say in this matter is, that _I_ never knew this
before; others may have been in possession of these facts, but I was
not."

"If you had been, of course you would have honoured him the more for
triumphing over difficulties," answered the elder Miss Brown, with
smooth sarcasm.

"Yes, certainly _that_, of course; but I should have thought him very
unsuitably placed as an instructor of youth and--"

The right adjustment of the cape seemed to interrupt the speech, but
others mentally supplied the ending with reference to Miss Bennett.

"Miss Rexford, being one of Principal Trenholme's oldest friends, is not
taken by surprise." Some one said this; Sophia h