were kind, well-meaning
people, who really thought it a dreadful thing, to be forced, at the
caprice of a husband, to leave home, and all its kindred joys, for a
rude uncultivated wilderness like Canada. To such Flora listened with
patience; for she believed their fears on her account were
genuine--their sympathy sincere.

There was only one person in the whole town whose comments she dreaded,
and whose pretended concern she looked upon as a real _bore_--this was
Mrs. Ready, the wife of a wealthy merchant, who was apt to consider
herself the great lady of the place.

The dreaded interview came at last. Mrs. Ready had been absent on a
visit to London; and the moment she heard of the intended emigration of
the Lyndsays to Canada, she put on her bonnet and shawl, and rushed to
the rescue. The loud, double rat-tat-tat at the door, announced an
arrival of more than ordinary consequence.

"O!" sighed Flora, pushing away her desk, at which she was writing
letters of importance, "I know that knock!--that disagreeable Mrs. Ready
is come at last!"

Before Mrs. Ready enters the room, I may as well explain to the reader,
what sort of an intimacy existed between Flora Lyndsay and Harriet
Ready, and why the former had such a repugnance to a visit from the
last-mentioned lady.

Without the aid of animal magnetism (although we have no doubt that it
belongs to that mysterious science) experience has taught us all, that
there are some natures that possess certain repellent qualities, which
never can be brought into affinity with our own--persons, whom we like
or dislike at first sight, with a strong predilection for the one almost
amounting to love, with a decided aversion to the other, which in some
instances almost merges into downright hate.

These two ladies had no attraction for each other: they had not a
thought or feeling in common; and they seldom met without a certain
sparring, which, to the looker-on, must have betrayed how matters stood
between them.

But why did they meet, if such were the case?

It would be true wisdom in all such repellent natures to keep apart.
Worldly prudence, and the conventional rules of society, compel persons
to hide these secret antipathies--nay, even to present the most smiling
exterior to those whom they often least respect.

The fear of making enemies, of being thought ill-natured and capricious,
or even of making the objects of their aversion persons of too much
consequence, by keep