ly
shaped sofa, on which Daisy had thrown a bright striped shawl, which
changed its aspect wonderfully. She wished to make a good impression
upon her American friend, and she succeeded beyond her most sanguine
hopes. With her ideas of the greatness and importance of the McPhersons,
who, if poor, were aristocrats, Mrs. Browne was prepared to see every
thing _couleur de rose_, and the old wainscoted room and quaint
furniture delighted her more even than the pretty little devices with
which Daisy had thought to make the room more modern and heighten the
effect.

"If there's anything I dote on particularly, it's on ancestry halls,"
Mrs. Rossiter-Browne said, as she looked admiringly around her. "Now
them chairs, which a Yankee would hide in the garret, speak of a past
and tell you've been somebody a good while. I'd give the world for such
an old place as this at home; but, my land! we are that new in America
that the starch fairly rattles as we walk. We are only a hundred years
old, you know; had our centennial two or three years ago. That was a big
show, I tell you; most as good as Europe, and better in some respects,
for I could be wheeled in a chair and see things comfortable, while over
here, my land! my legs is most broke off, and I tell Gusty I'll have to
get a new pair if I stay much longer. Think of me climbing up Pisa, and
St. Peter's, and all the Campyniles in the country, and that brass thing
in Munich to boot, where I thought I should of sweltered, and all to say
you've been there. It's a park of nonsense, I tell 'em, though I s'pose
it does cultivate you, and that reconciles me to it."

Here the lady paused for breath, and Augusta, whose face was very red,
began to talk to Bessie of Wales and the wild, beautiful scenery. She
was as well educated as most young ladies of her class, and was really
a very pretty, lady-like girl, who expressed herself well and
intelligently, and was evidently annoyed by her mother's manner of
speaking, for she tried to keep the conversation in her own hands, and
Bessie, who guessed her design, helped her to do so; and after a few
moments Mrs. Browne arose to go, and, shaking out her silk flounces and
pulling her hands to her ears to make sure her immense diamonds were not
unclasped, because, as she said, she would not for a farm lose her
_solitarys_, she said good-morning, and was driven away to see the
_elephant_ of Bangor and vicinity.

Bessie drew a long breath of relief as sh