d, with a little sharpness. "So are
flowers," I said to myself.

"It is not that, Alice," I answered peevishly; "you know better."

"You are peculiar, then; it may be he likes you for being so. He is
odd, you know; but his oddity never troubles me." And she resumed her
sewing with a placid face.

"Veronica is odd, also," was my thought; "but oddity there runs in
a different direction." Her image appeared to me, pale, delicate,
unyielding. I seemed to wash like a weed at her base.

"You should see my sister, Alice."

"Charles spoke of her; he says she plays beautifully. If you feel
strong next week, we will go to Boston, and make our winter purchases.
By the way, I hope you are not nervous. To go back to Charles, I
have noticed how little you say to him. You know he never talks. The
influence you speak of--it does not make you dislike him?"

"No; I meant to say--my choice of words must be poor--that it was
possible I might be thinking too much of him; he is your husband,
you know, though I do not think he is particularly interesting, or
pleasing."

She laughed, as if highly amused, and said: "Well, about our dresses.
You need a ball dress, so do I; for we shall have balls this winter,
and if the children are well, we will go. I think, too, that you had
better get a gray cloth pelisse, with a fur trimming. We dress so much
at church."

"Perhaps," I said. "And how will a gray hat with feathers look? I must
first write father, and ask for more money."

"Of course; but he allows you all you want."

"He is not so very rich; we do not live as handsomely as you do."

It was tea-time when we had finished our confab, and Alice sent me to
bed soon after. I was comfortably drowsy when I heard Charles driving
into the stable. "There he is," I thought, with a light heart, for I
felt better since I had spoken to Alice of him. Her matter-of-fact air
had blown away the cobwebs that had gathered across my fancy.

I saw him at the breakfast-table the next morning. He was noting
something in his memorandum book, which excused him from offering me
his hand; but he spoke kindly, said he was glad to see me, hoped I was
well, and could find a breakfast that I liked.

"For some reason or other, I do not eat so much as I did in Surrey."

Alice laughed, and I blushed.

"What do you think, Charles?" she said, "Cassandra seems worried by
the influence, as she calls it, you have upon each other."

"Does she?"

He raised his str