such did
not attract her; but real joys, beauty and gayety, the company of
pleasant people, _i.e._ people who suited _her_, graceful surroundings,
becoming clothes, and plenty of them, all were dear and delightful to
her.

Some of these things she had tasted when she lived with her mother in
the German and Italian towns where she had been chiefly educated; the
rest she was satisfied to imagine. Above all, she loved to charm those
with whom she associated--loved it in a half-unconscious way. Were it to
a poor blind beggar woman, or a little crossing sweeper, she would speak
as gently and modulate her voice as carefully as to the most brilliant
partner or the greatest lady. This might be tenderness of nature, or the
profound instinct to win liking and admiration. As yet it was quite
instinctive; but if hurt or offended she could feel resentment very
vividly, and was by no means too ready to forgive.

Unfortunately she started with a strong prejudice against her uncle, and
sometimes rehearsed in her own mind exceedingly fine speeches which she
would have liked to address to her miserly relative on the subject of
his cruelty to his son, his avarice, his egotism.

Still a strain of pity ran through her meditations. Was life worth
living, spent as his was? How far had his nature been warped by his
wife's desertion?

It was an extraordinary experience to Katherine, this packing up of her
belongings to quit her home. She took as little as she could help, to
keep up the idea that she was entering on a very temporary engagement;
besides, as she meant to adhere rigidly to her right of a weekly visit
to her mother, she could always get what she wanted.

After Mrs. Liddell, Katherine found it hardest to part with the boys,
specially little Charlie, whose guardian and champion she had
constituted herself. Her sister-in-law had rather an irritating effect
upon her, of which she was a little ashamed, and whenever she had spoken
sharply, which she did occasionally, she was ready to atone for it by
doing some extra service, so that, on the whole, the pretty little widow
got a good deal more out of her sister than out of her mother-in-law.

But meditations, resolutions, regrets, and preparations notwithstanding,
the day of Katherine's departure arrived. It was a bright, glowing
afternoon, and the Thursday fixed for the boating party. Mrs. Liddell
junior had expended much eloquence to no purpose, as she well knew it
would be, in try