"Oh no! my mother is pretty. She has my eyes, but that's all."

"I didn't mean in looks," said the old man; "she did not look in the
least like you; not in the least! I mean in her views?"

"Her views? I don't think my mother has any particular views," Miss
North answered, hesitatingly; "I spare her all thought," she ended, and
her thin face bloomed suddenly with love.

Old Chester rocked with the Captain's report of his call; and Mrs. Cyrus
told her husband that she only wished this lady would stop his father's
smoking.

"Just look at his ashes," said Gussie; "I put saucers round everywhere
to catch 'em, but he shakes 'em off anywhere--right on the carpet! And
if you say anything, he just says, 'Oh, they'll keep the moths away!' I
worry so for fear he'll set the house on fire."

Mrs. Cyrus was so moved by Miss North's active mission-work that the
very next day she wandered across the street to call. "I hope I'm not
interrupting you," she began, "but I thought I'd just--"

"Yes; you are," said Miss North; "but never mind; stay, if you want to."
She tried to smile, but she looked at the duster which she had put down
upon Mrs. Cyrus's entrance.

Gussie wavered as to whether to take offence, but decided not to--at
least not until she could make the remark which was buzzing in her small
mind. It seemed strange, she said, that Mrs. North should come, not only
to Old Chester, but right across the street from Captain Price!

"Why?" said Mary North, briefly.

"_Why?_" said Mrs. Cyrus, with faint animation. "Gracious! is it
possible that you don't know about your mother and my father-in-law?"

"Your father-in-law?--my mother?"

"Why, you know," said Mrs. Cyrus, with her light cackle, "your mother
was a little romantic when she was young. No doubt she has conquered it
by this time. But she tried to elope with my father-in-law."

"What!"

"Oh, bygones should be bygones," Mrs. Cyrus said, soothingly; "forgive
and forget, you know. I have no doubt she is perfectly--well, perfectly
correct, now. If there's anything I can do to assist you, ma'am, I'll
send my husband over"; and then she lounged away, leaving poor Mary
North silent with indignation. But that night at tea Gussie said that
she thought strong-minded ladies were very unladylike; "they say she's
strong-minded," she added, languidly.

"Lady!" said the Captain. "She's a man-o'-war's-man in petticoats."

Gussie giggled.

"She's as flat as a lath," the Capta