wing a stranger.

"I am going to find out who this young person is," said Dexie, laughing.
"Who knows, perhaps it is my only chance to 'see myself as others see me.'"

After a few inquiries, it was found that Dexie's double was a Nina Gordon,
only daughter of a widow lately arrived in Halifax, and residing with a
bachelor brother who was travelling for a city firm.

Cora Gurney happened to meet both mother and daughter while making a round
of calls with a friend, and she ran in to tell Dexie of the meeting.

"Your double is not very much like you after all, Dexie," she said. "Her
figure and style of walking are remarkably like yours, even to the poise of
her head; her hair, too, is almost the same shade; the eyes and upper part
of the face are similar: but the mouth and chin are her own--they have no
resemblance whatever to the true Dexie. It is the first sight that strikes
one. When you look for the resemblance, it really seems slight enough, and
when she begins to talk, my! the illusion vanishes at once, for really I do
not think I ever met a person who irritated me as she did. She is a girl
after the 'china doll' pattern, and can only use her brains at the
direction of her mother. I do not think she ventured a remark of her own
all the time I was there."

"Perhaps she did not have the chance," said Dexie, eager to champion the
cause of her double. "Some girls are not allowed to have an opinion apart
from the maternal idea of the fitness of things, and are kept down."

"Nonsense! If you had heard her talking, Dexie, I'm sure you would have
felt like shaking her. It is only when her face is in repose that she
resembles you in the least, for the moment she begins to talk, or even
listen--or try to listen, one might say--she has the most senseless
expression I ever saw on a woman's face."

"Goodness sake! bring me a looking-glass, quick! do, till I see what I look
like when I talk. Does my face assume an idiotic expression when I am
conversing? Be honest and tell me, for sweet charity's sake."

"Ease your mind, Dexie," said Cora, laughing. "Did I not say that there the
resemblance ends? It is only when her face is at rest that the likeness can
be seen at all. If you ask her the simplest question, she must refer to her
mother for advice before she replies. For instance, I asked her if she
liked Halifax. 'Do I like Halifax, mamma, do you think?' and she turned to
her mother with such an affected simper. Really, I alm