amished and wholly hopeless statue of Patience that I
saw on a monument at the last funeral I attended in Greenwood.
Hattie, do take her to her room, and give her some hot chocolate, or
coffee, or whatever she drinks."

She had taken both the stranger's hands, shook them rather roughly,
and in conclusion pushed her toward the door.

Olga Neville was twenty-two, tall, finely formed, rather handsome;
with unusually bright reddish-hazel eyes, and a profusion of tawny
hair, which nine persons in ten would unhesitatingly have pronounced
red, but which she persistently asserted was of exactly the classic
shade of ruddy gold, that the Borgia gave to Bembo. Her features were
large, and somewhat irregular in contour, but her complexion was
brilliant, her carriage very graceful, and though one might safely
predict that at some distant day she would prove "fair, fat, and
forty," her full figure had not yet transgressed the laws of
symmetry.

As the door of the sitting-room closed, she put her large white hands
on her mother's shoulders, shook her a little, and kissed her on the
cheek.

"Do, mamma, let us have fair play, or I shall desert to the enemy. It
was not right to open your batteries on that little thing before she
got well into position, and established her line. If I am any judge
of human nature, I rather guess from the set of her lips, and the
stars that danced up and down in her eyes, that she is not quite as
easily flanked as a pawn on a chessboard."

"I wish, Olga, that you were a better judge of common sense, and of
the courtesy due to my opinions. I can tell you we are likely to see
trouble enough with this high-tempered girl added to the family
circle."

"Why, she has not Lucretia-coloured tresses like my own lovely-spun
gold? I thought her hair looked very black."

"I will warrant it is not half as black as her disposition. She
looked absolutely diabolical when she pretended to march out into the
world, playing the _role_ of injured, persecuted innocence."

"Now, mamma! She is decidedly the prettiest piece of diabolism I ever
saw. Elliott, what do you think of her?"

"That some day she will be a most astonishing beauty. Can you
recollect that lovely green and white cameo pin set with diamonds
that Tiffany had last spring? Ned Bartlett bought it for his wife the
day they started to Saratoga. Well, this girl is exactly like that
exquisite white cameo head; I noticed the likeness as soon as I saw
her. Bu