Polly looked at Molly. "Don't you ever go to the table with your
parents?" asked Polly.

"Sometimes we go for dessert."

"Well," returned Polly, "if I couldn't stay all the time, I must say
I'd like better to come in for dessert than just for soup."

Mary looked serious, but Molly laughed. "Don't you want to go down on
the rocks with us?" asked the latter.

"I think I would prefer to sit here," said Mary.

"All by yourself?" said Molly, surprised.

"Oh, yes, I like to be alone."

This was too decided a hint for the others not to take, so they marched
off together. "Well," said Polly when they were out of hearing, "I
don't think much of her manners, and I don't think I shall trouble her
much with my company. She likes to be alone; well, she will be, as far
as I am concerned."

"Oh, she feels strange at first," said Molly by way of excusing her
English cousin. "After while she will be more 'folksy,' as Luella
says."

"Well then, when she wants to come with us she can say so. I shall not
ask her, I know. She is just like what I was afraid she would be
stand-offish and airish. She reminds me of 'the cat that walks by
herself.' I was always afraid the girls I might meet would be that
way."

At this Molly looked quite hurt.

"Oh, I don't mean you," Polly went on, putting her arm around her
cousin to reassure her. "You are just dear, Molly. I loved you right
away."

Molly's hurt feelings disappeared at this. "I am sure," she remarked,
"Mary needn't be so high and mighty; she hasn't half as pretty clothes
as we have."

"And she doesn't look nice in those she does have," returned Polly.

From this the two went on from one criticism to another till finally
they worked themselves up into quite hard feelings against Mary, and
resolved to let her quite alone and not invite her to join their plays.
This plan they began to carry out the next day to such a marked extent
that their Aunt Ada noticed it.

"I did suppose Molly and Polly would want to show more hospitality to
their little English cousin," she said to her brother.

Dick smiled. "They will in time," he said. "A dose of their own
medicine might do them good."

"Perhaps Mary has really said something to offend them," said Miss Ada
thoughtfully, "or possibly they misunderstand each other's ways. I
will watch them for a day or two and try to discover what is wrong."
She kept Mary at her side after this, and when she was not doing
something t