ard
Island, on a horse-buying expedition, but we will not follow them, as our
story has to do with those in Halifax; it is sufficient to say that they
secured a number of valuable animals for the New York market, at a price
that surprised Mr. Sherwood until he understood that the Island farmers
were ready to dispose of all products "cheap for cash."

As might be supposed, the friendly intercourse between the members of the
two families grew stronger as the taste of each became more apparent.

Dexie and Elsie were "chums" at once, though each possessed an opposite
nature; one supplied what the other lacked, so they agreed charmingly.

Gussie was older in appearance than her twin, Dexie, and preferred the
society of a "grown-up" young lady, and Cora Gurney found her a pleasant
companion.

Launcelot Gurney, or Lancy, was the musical genius of the Gurney family,
and this soon caused a feeling of friendship to spring up between him and
Dexie Sherwood, and few days passed in which they did not spend
considerable time in each other's society. But the closest observer could
find no fault with this intimacy. It sprang from the similarity of tastes,
and the frank, straightforward manner which marked their intercourse denied
the existence of any foolish sentimentality. Though younger than Cora,
Lancy seemed by his steady ways and manly behavior to be the eldest of the
family. Perhaps the fact that his father talked so much with him, and
interested him in matters that seldom claim the attention of youths of his
age, had something to do with his manner, but behind his usual calm
exterior there was an amount of conceit not always apparent to others, a
conceit that placed himself above the ordinary High School boys who had
been his daily associates. This they had felt intuitively, and with his
precise habits and nicety of dress had caused him to be dubbed "the dandy."

Another member of the Gurney household must also be mentioned, for Hugh
McNeil belonged to the family almost as much as Lancy himself, seeing that
he had been cared for by Mrs. Gurney before Lancy was born. He was the son
of a strange marriage, a marriage that had turned out disastrously. His
father had been valet to Mr. Gurney's eldest brother, and, while attending
his master in Paris, had fallen in love with a pretty French waitress, and
secretly married her. On returning to England with his master, the French
wife followed him and revealed the marriage, and this s