ed movement
could not be guessed from his demeanor. She glanced at him now and then,
with bright eyes and flushed cheeks, eager to speak yet shrinking
from the half magisterial air which was beginning to supplant his old
familiar banter. Henry was changing with his new responsibility, as
she admitted to herself with a sort of dismay; he had the airs of an
independent farmer, and she remained only a farmer's daughter,--without
any acknowledged rights, until she should acquire them all, at a single
blow, by marriage.

Nevertheless, he must have felt what was in her mind; for, as he cut out
the quarter of a dried apple pie, he said carelessly:

"I must go down to the Lion, this afternoon. There's a fresh drove of
Maryland cattle just come."

"Oh Harry!" cried Betty, in real distress.

"I know," he answered; "but as Miss Bartram is going to stay two weeks,
she'll keep. She's not like a drove, that's here one day, and away the
next. Besides, it is precious little good I shall have of her society,
until you two have used up all your secrets and small talk. I know how
it is with girls. Leonard will drive over to meet the train."

"Won't I do on a pinch?" Leonard asked.

"Oh, to be sure," said Betty, a little embarrassed, "only Alice--Miss
Bartram--might expect Harry, because her brother came for me when I went
up."

"If that's all, make yourself easy, Bet," Henry answered, as he rose
from the table. "There's a mighty difference between here and there.
Unless you mean to turn us into a town family while she stays--high
quality, eh?"

"Go along to your cattle! there's not much quality, high or low, where
you are."

Betty was indignant; but the annoyance exhausted itself healthfully
while she was clearing away the dishes and restoring the room to its
order, so that when Leonard drove up to the gate with the lumbering,
old-fashioned carriage two hours afterwards, she came forth calm,
cheerful, fresh as a pink in her pink muslin, and entirely the good,
sensible country-girl she was.

Two or three years before, she and Miss Alice Bartram, daughter of the
distinguished lawyer in the city, had been room-mates at the Nereid
Seminary for Young Ladies. Each liked the other for the contrast to her
own self; both were honest, good and lovable, but Betty had the stronger
nerves and a practical sense which seemed to be admirable courage in
the eyes of Miss Alice, whose instincts were more delicate, whose tastes
were fine and hi