y tidy by the looks of you, Aunt Soph. I
can't see after things myself, but I fidget the life out of everybody if
I'm not just so. I've got the sweetest clothes.--Do you have gay times
over here in Norton? Is there a good deal of young society? I love
prancing round and having a good time. Poppar says the boys spoil me;
there's always a crowd of them hanging round, ready to do everything I
want, and to send me flowers and bon-bons. I'm just crazed on bonbons!
My state-room was piled full of bouquets and chocolates coming over. I
had more than any other girl on board!"

Miss Briskett's lips tightened ominously. "If by `boys' you mean young
men, Cornelia, I am surprised that your father allows you to receive
indiscriminate gifts from strangers. I fear he hag become a thorough
American, and forgotten his early training. In England no young man
would venture to send a gift to a lady to whom he was not either
related, or engaged to be married."

"My! how mean! Amurican men are for ever sending things, and the girls
just love to have them do it. Seems to me, Aunt Soph, it's about time I
came over to teach you how to do things in this benighted isle! Poppar
says you're all pretty mouldy, but, short of an earthquake, he can't
think of anything better calculated to shake you up, than a good spell
of me waltzing around. I guess he's about right. I'm never quiet
unless I'm sick. There's not much of the Sleeping Beauty about Cornelia
E Briskett!"

Miss Briskett sat still, a pillar of outraged propriety. This was worse
than anything she had expected! The girl appeared to have no modesty,
no decorum, no sense of shame. She might straighten her back until it
was as stiff as a poker, might arch her brows into semicircles, and
purse her lips into an expression of disapproval which would have
frightened Elma Ramsden out of her senses, but Cornelia never appeared
to notice that anything was amiss, and continued her meal with bland
enjoyment. When she had finished the sandwiches she rested her left arm
more firmly on her aunt's knee, and raised her pointed chin until it
rested, actually rested, upon the edge of the table, the while she
carefully scrutinised the different varieties of cake, and selected the
piece most to her taste. At this she proceeded to nibble with evident
satisfaction, lifting it to her lips in one thin hand, while the other
still rested caressingly on that shiny silk lap. Miss Briskett's dumb
s