; Molly prefers bear. Without their bonnets you will
distinguish them by their complexion. Molly has raven hair (she is the
truest O'Donoghue), whilst Madeleine is fair, _blonde_, like her
Breton father."

The sisters greeted their new-found guardian, each in her own way.
And, in spite of the disguising bonnets and their surprising
similarity of voice, height, and build, the difference was more marked
than that of beaver and bear.

Madeleine acknowledged her kinsman's greeting with a dainty curtsey
and little half-shy smile, marked by that air of distinction and
breeding which was her peculiar characteristic. Molly, however, who
thought she had reasonable cause for feeling generally exasperated,
and who did not see in Mr. Rupert Landale, despite his good looks and
his good manner, a very promising substitute for her Bath admirers
(nor in the prospect of Pulwick a profitable exchange for Bath), came
forward with her bolder grace to flounce him a saucy "reverence,"
measuring him the while with a certain air of mockery which his
thin-skinned susceptibility was quick to seize.

He looked back at her down the long tunnel of her bonnet, appraising
the bloom and beauty within with cold and curious gaze, and then he
turned to Madeleine and made to her his courteous speech of welcome.

This was sufficient for Miss Molly, who, for six months already
accustomed to compel admiration at first sight from all specimens of
the male sex that came across her path, instantly vowed a deadly
hatred to her cousin, and followed the party into the Landale family
coach--Rupert preceding, with a lady on each arm--in a temper as black
as her own locks.

It fell to her lot to sit beside the objectionable relative on the
back seat, while, by the right of her minute's seniority, Madeleine
sat beside Tanty in the front. The projecting wings of her headgear
effectively prevented her from watching his demeanour, unless, indeed,
she had turned to him, which was, of course, out of the question; but
certain fugitive conscious blushes upon the young face in front of
her, certain castings down of long lashes and timid upward glances,
made Molly shrewdly conjecture that Mr. Landale, through all the
apparent devotion with which he listened to Tanty's continuous flow of
observations, was able to bestow a certain amount of attention upon
her pretty neighbour.

Tanty herself conducted the conversation with her usual high hand,
feigning utter oblivion of