ration and envy of all
aspirants to social fame. It was said that Mrs. Stornaway had been a
beauty in her youth, and there were those who placed confidence in the
rumour. Mrs. Stornaway did so herself, and it had been intimated that it
was this excellent lady who had vouched for the truth of the statement in
the first instance; but this report having been traced to a pert young
relative who detested and derided her, might have had its origin in
youthful disrespect and malice.

At present Mrs. Stornaway was a large blonde woman whose blondness was
not fairness, and whose size was not roundness. She was the leader of all
religious and charitable movements, presiding with great vigour over
church matters, fairs, concerts, and sewing societies. The minister of
her church submitted himself to her advice and guidance. All the modest
members of the choir quailed and quavered before her, while even the bold
ones, meeting her eye when engaged in worldly conversation between their
musical efforts, momentarily lost their interest and involuntarily
straightened themselves.

Towards her family Mrs. Stornaway performed her duty with unflinching
virtue. She had married her six daughters in a manner at once creditable
to herself, themselves, and Willowfield. Five of them had been rather
ordinary, depressed-looking girls, who, perhaps, were not sorry to obtain
their freedom. The sixth had narrowly escaped being dowered with all the
charms said to have adorned Mrs. Stornaway's own youth.

"Agnes is very like what I was at her age," said her mother, with
dignity; and perhaps she was, though no one had been able to trace any
resemblance which had defied the ravages of time.

Agnes had made a marriage which in some points was better than those of
her sisters. She had married a brilliant man, while the other five had
been obliged to make the best of things as far as brilliancy was
concerned. People always said of John Baird that he was a brilliant man
and that a great career lay before him. He was rather remarkable for a
curious subtle distinction of physical good looks. He was not of the
common, straight-featured, personable type. It had been said by the
artistic analyst of form and line that his aspect did not belong to his
period, that indeed his emotional, spirited face, with its look of
sensitiveness and race, was of the type once connected with fine old
steel engravings of young poets not quite beyond the days of powdered
hair and