He thought it wiser to follow suit, and they were
at ease again, though each remembered the other's blush.

"I came upon a very touching tableau in the saloon," said he; "the bride
was reluctantly pecking at some chicken, and that ass, Butler, feeding
her with a fork."

"Ah! those are your nationalities," laughed Bluebell; "we don't do such
silly things in Canada."

"No, you are very stiff and stand-offish there, I know; that is why you
don't require chaperones."

"What are the duties of a chaperone in England, beyond sitting up against
a wall all night, like an old barn-door hen?"

"But they mustn't roost," said Mr. Dutton; "they have to guard their
charges from the insidious approaches of ineligible youths, and assist
them to entwine in their meshes the sons of Mammon."

"But it must be rather difficult at a ball to distinguish who are
eligible as you call them."

"Oh, an astute and practised chaperone knows pretty well who everybody
is. They have books of reference, too,--the 'Peerage' and 'Landed
Gentry.' I believe now, though, a good deal of matrimonial business
is done in the city."

"And men have no objection to heiresses either," said Bluebell, darkly,
as a memory came over her. "There's the dinner bell." He collected her
rugs, and helped her down to the saloon, where they were betting how many
knots the steamer had made that day, and raffling for the successful
number. Mrs. Oliphant was present, almost as brisk as usual, for the wind
had moderated, and the steamer laboured far less. After dinner some of
the ladies joined in a game of shovel-board on deck. The bride, now quite
bright again, insisted upon being instructed by Mr. Dutton, and became,
with a view to his fascination, more helpless and infantine than ever,
for she was one of those women who cannot bear any one to be an object
of attention but themselves.

However, as she was not successful in detaching him entirely from
Bluebell, she conceived a dislike to her, in which Mrs. Oliphant
cordially participated, and they afterwards whiled away many an hour in
the dear delight of detraction. Bluebell was pronounced an unprincipled
adventuress, determined to use every art to entrap this unsophisticated
young man, and each act and look on her part was treasured up by the two
censors for private analysis and discussion.

Mrs. Butler, it is true, had less provocation to be spiteful than the
elder lady; for being young and silly, she _was_ a certain