n is concerned, until I was brought into habits of daily
communication with our fair guest.

In her domestic relations with ourselves she showed that exquisite
nicety of discrimination in studying our characters, habits and tastes
which comes by instinct with women, and which even the longest practice
rarely teaches in similar perfection to men. She saw at a glance all the
underlying tenderness and generosity concealed beneath Owen's external
shyness, irresolution, and occasional reserve; and, from first to last,
even in her gayest moments, there was always a certain quietly-implied
consideration--an easy, graceful, delicate deference--in her manner
toward my eldest brother, which won upon me and upon him every hour in
the day.

With me she was freer in her talk, quicker in her actions, readier
and bolder in all the thousand little familiarities of our daily
intercourse. When we met in the morning she always took Owen's hand, and
waited till he kissed her on the forehead. In my case she put both her
hands on my shoulders, raised herself on tiptoe, and saluted me briskly
on both checks in the foreign way. She never differed in opinion with
Owen without propitiating him first by some little artful compliment in
the way of excuse. She argued boldly with me on every subject under the
sun, law and politics included; and, when I got the better of her, never
hesitated to stop me by putting her hand on my lips, or by dragging me
out into the garden in the middle of a sentence.

As for Morgan, she abandoned all restraint in his case on the second
day of her sojourn among us. She had asked after him as soon as she was
settled in her two rooms on the third story; had insisted on knowing why
he lived at the top of the tower, and why he had not appeared to welcome
her at the door; had entrapped us into all sorts of damaging admissions,
and had thereupon discovered the true state of the case in less than
five minutes.

From that time my unfortunate second brother became the victim of all
that was mischievous and reckless in her disposition. She forced
him downstairs by a series of maneuvers which rendered his refuge
uninhabitable, and then pretended to fall violently in love with him.
She slipped little pink three-cornered notes under his door, entreating
him to make appointments with her, or tenderly inquiring how he would
like to see her hair dressed at dinner on that day. She followed him
into the garden, sometimes to ask for