resent that idea!" laughed the
girl, mischievously. Yet the next instant she regretfully observed that
she had again annoyed her dignified hostess.

Indeed, the annoyance was so great that Miss Maitland's brow clouded,
and her eye swept the stylishly garbed small figure at the window with
renewed misgiving. She knew little of the latter-day young folks, with
their study-sharpened intelligence, their habit of repartee, and their
self-assumed equality with their elders. Such few of the Marsden lads
and lasses as visited her belonged to the old-fashioned families, and
were trained to strict habits of obedience, and "to speak when they were
spoken to." They were supposed to have no opinions on any subject save
such as were formed for them by their parents and guardians; and--well,
they were altogether different from this alert, dark-eyed maiden, who
had been in the house less than an hour, yet had already upset it to a
degree!

Kate's gaze had again returned to the scene without, and she had
forgotten her momentary regret, as she observed, from time to time:

"She's the funniest thing I ever saw, and he's funnier than she! He
doesn't want to lift the trunk. No. She doesn't want him to. Yes, she
does. She's getting mad. He won't do it her way. She won't do it his.
They're both coming in and leaving it on the sidewalk. He's saying
something to her and now she's faced about again. Maybe he said 'tramp,'
because she's looking all up and down the street as if she were scared,
and he's laughing. I guess he's laughing--he shakes as if he were, yet
his face is as sober as ever. Now they're off! Here they come. But do
look, Aunt Eunice, oh, do look! He's just barely lifting his end off the
ground, and she's raised hers real high. She's doing the most of the
work, I believe, yet he's crouching down as if he were half-crushed by
the weight. The idea! He sha'n't do that! I won't let any woman be
treated that way!"

Out she sped, leaving all doors open and thus obliging Miss Maitland to
close them after her or let the rooms be cooled by the inrush of wind.
But her swift comprehension of the habits of the two household helpers,
and her vivid description of their present movements, had so amused the
lady that she also took up a point of observation, and was just in time
to see Katharine indignantly push Moses' hand from the trunk-handle and
seize it herself. It was evidently a heavier load than she had expected,
for, at first, her en