versed upon genteel subjects. Nothing less
important than the doings of the Royal Family, or at least the
nobility, and, of course, once a week, the minister's sermon, was ever
discussed in their tiny parlor. And as Cousin Griselda often remarked
privately, Who were more able to discourse with ease upon such themes?
For did there not live, right in Edinburgh, Sir William Gordon, who was
almost a second cousin to both, and whose wife, Lady Gordon, had once
called on them right there in McGlashan Street.

But Cousin Griselda was not content even with perfect refinement and
titled relatives, and her vaulting ambition had led to the great
mistake of Margaret's life. The draper's wife next door had called,
and when she had gone and Keziah had carried away the three tea-cups,
Cousin Griselda had remarked upon the almost genuine air of grandeur
possessed by Mrs. Galbraith. Margaret had asked how it could be, for
Mrs. Galbraith had no family connections and a husband in trade, and
Cousin Griselda had thereupon expressed the firm conviction that it was
because Mrs. Galbraith had traveled. She had been twice to London and
several times to Liverpool. Cousin Griselda concluded by declaring
that though a baronet in the family, and good blood were essential to
true gentility, no one could deny that travel in foreign lands gave an
air of distinction which nothing else could bestow.

The cousins were thoroughly disturbed in their minds thereafter and
talked much of travel, to the neglect of the Royal Family. And even
while the subject was absorbing them there had come to Margaret her
brother William's letter from far-off Canada inviting her to visit him.
The bare thought that Margaret might go, set the cousins into a flutter
of excitement. To be sure, Margaret argued, Canada was a very wild and
frost-bound country, scarcely the place one would choose to travel over
in search of further refinement. But Griselda declared that surely, no
matter where dear William's lot might be cast, being a Gordon, he would
be surrounded by an atmosphere of gentility. And so, little by little,
the preposterous idea grew into a reality, and by the time the cousins
had discussed the matter for a year, it was finally decided that
Margaret should go.

All through the twenty years of his absence, William's letters had been
just as beautifully written and as nicely phrased, as they had in his
student days in Edinburgh. The paper was not always wha