"I had
this dress made on purpose to please you, for you once said you liked
dark blue."

"And so I do on your sister, but your complexion is different from
hers, and then those _ruffles_ and bag sleeves make you look like a
little barrel!"

"You told me you admired flounces, and these sleeves are all the
fashion," said Ella, the tears again flowing in spite of herself.

"Well, I do think Mary looks well in flounces," returned Henry, "but
she is almost a head taller than you, and better proportioned every
way."

Ella longed to remind him of a time when he called her sister "a hay
pole," while he likened herself to "a little sylph, fairy;" &c., but
she dared not; and Henry, bent on finding fault, touched her white
bare shoulder, saying "I wish you wouldn't wear such dresses. Mary
don't except at parties, and I heard a gentleman say that she
displayed better taste than any young lady of his acquaintance."

Ella was thoroughly angry, and amid a fresh shower of tears exclaimed,
"_Mary_,--_Mary_,--I'm sick of the name. It's nothing but Mary,--Mary
all day long with Mrs. Campbell, and now _you_ must thrust her in my
face. If you think her so perfect, why don't you marry her, instead of
me?"

"Simply because she won't have me," returned Henry, and then not
wishing to provoke Ella too far, he playfully threw his arm around her
waist, adding "But come, my little beauty, don't let's quarrel any
more about her. I ought to like _my sister_, and you shouldn't be
jealous. So throw on your cloak, and let's be off."

"Oh, no, not yet. It's too early" answered Ella, nothing loth to have
an hour alone with him.

So they sat down together upon the sofa, and after asking about Rose,
and how long Jenny was to remain in Glenwood, Ella, chancing to think
of the strange discovery that day made with regard to herself and
Mary, mentioned it to Henry, who seemed much more excited about it
than she had been.

"Mrs. Campbell, your mother's sister!" said he. "And Mary's aunt too?
Why didn't you tell me before?"

"Because I didn't think of it," returned Ella. "And it's nothing so
very marvellous either, or at least it does not affect _me_ in the
least." Henry did not reply, but there was that passing through his
mind which might affect Ella not a little. As the reader knows, he was
marrying her for her money; and now if that money was to be shared
with another, the bride lost half her value! But such thoughts must
not be expressed, and