ost disliked her the
moment she opened her mouth."

"I hope I shall get a chance to see her before we leave Halifax," said
Dexie.

"Well, I asked her and her mother to call on mamma next week, almost on
purpose for your benefit. Hugh is getting along so well I think mamma can
receive some friends. I will let you know when they come."

A further acquaintance corroborated Cora's idea of Nina Gordon's brains.
She seemed to have no mind of her own; a good thing, perhaps, in some
cases, but a more spiritless person to talk to never vexed the heart of man
or woman either. She had no answer for the simplest question without first
asking it from her mother, and away from her mother's side she was uneasy
and almost dumb.

The mother's idiosyncrasy was always to do "the correct thing." The fear of
not doing it, or the dread of having done it unknowingly, was constantly
before her--the bugbear that troubled her daily. Perhaps the daughter
inherited the mother's dread, and her fear of doing or saying something
that was not just "the correct thing" made her put all the responsibility
of conversation on her mother's shoulder. Dexie was amused, as well as
provoked, as she listened to the efforts at conversation which Cora vainly
endeavored to sustain with her double, and it was evident that Mrs. Gurney
also was surprised as well as amused at Mrs. Gordon's remarks.

"However do you manage with such a large family, Mrs. Gurney?" she was
saying. "Why, with only Nina I am wearied to death; for from the time she
wakes up I must see to everything for her until she goes to bed again at
night. How you manage it for so many, I can't see, I am sure. I should die
of fatigue."

"Oh! the children soon get big enough to help themselves, and the younger
ones, too," Mrs. Gurney replied, with a smile. "I seldom see my girls in
the morning until I meet them at the breakfast table."

"Is it possible! Do you not have to superintend their dressing?" she asked,
in surprise.

"Why, no, Mrs. Gordon! Girls of that age," waving her hand toward the group
by the window, "are supposed to have judgment of their own in such things,
and with some to spare for the little ones."

"Dear me! I should be so afraid they would not do the correct thing if I
was not by."

"Perhaps you are by when she ought to rely on herself," was the smiling
answer. "My girls are relieving me of much of the burden of household
cares."

"Well, well!" and Mrs. Gordon looked acro