ips.

"My stars and stripes!" she cried aloud. "I'll take root if I sit here
much longer. Seems as that change won't be ready till the last trump!"

She sprang from her chair as she spoke, too much absorbed in her own
impatience to note the petrifaction of horror on the faces of the
waiters at the counter, and in the doorway came face to face with a
plump, dignified little lady, accompanied by a girl in navy blue.

"How do you do, my dear? I am Mrs Ramsden," said the stoat lady,
holding out her hand with a very pleasant friendliness. "As the niece
of my dear friend and neighbour, allow me to give you a hearty welcome
to our shores. This is my daughter, Elma, with whom I hope you will be
great friends. I will leave you to talk together while I make my
purchases. Young people always get on better alone!"

She smiled, a kind, motherly smile, nodding her head the while, until
the upright feather quivered on its stem, then disappeared through the
dingy portals, leaving the two girls on the narrow pavement staring at
each other with bright, curious eyes.

"How--how do you like England?" queried Elma, shyly, and Cornelia
answered with a happy laugh--

"I've been asked that question hef a dozen times already, and I only set
foot on these shores day before yesterday. I think it seems a real good
place for a nerve rest, but if you want to hustle!--" She shrugged
expressively, and Elma smiled with quick understanding.

"Ah, you have been shopping at Willcox's! But Willcox's is not
England--Norton is not England; it's just a sleepy little backwater,
shut away from the great current of life. Don't judge England by what
you see here. You'd like the _real_ England--you couldn't help liking
that!"

"I like _you_!" said Cornelia, bluntly. She held out her hand with a
gesture of frank camaraderie, and Elma clasped it, thrilling with
pleasure. A happy conviction assured her that she had found a friend
after her own heart.

CHAPTER FIVE.

By the time that Cornelia had been a week in residence at The Nook, she
had become the one absorbing topic of Norton conversation, and her
aunt's attitude towards her was an odd mingling of shame and pride. On
principle the spinster disapproved of almost everything that the girl
did or said, and suffered every day a succession of electric shocks--
but, as we all know, such shocks are guaranteed to exercise a bracing
influence on the constitution, and Miss Briskett was conscio