ld come
sooner."

Adele thought: "What a state the house would have been in, if I had
arrived an hour earlier."

Mrs. Soher began to dust a secretaire, talking all the while to her
niece. "Amelia will soon be down; she ran upstairs when she heard
you knock at the door; she does not like for anyone to see her when
she is not properly dressed, but _I_ don't care, not when it is you,
at any rate."

"A pretty compliment," thought the visitor.

When they were all assembled round the table partaking of their tea,
Adele tried over and over again to lead the conversation into a
pleasant channel, but all to no purpose. The inmates of the
"Prenoms" had to be taught to converse properly before they could do
so. Mrs. Soher began to babble in her ordinary way. Her daughter
supported her foolish statements. Adele made no remark. Her aunt
noticed this, and after a most scornful remark about Mrs. B.'s
character, she said to her niece: "Don't you think so?"

Although considerably annoyed, Adele had not so far made any remark,
but she was now directly appealed to. She spoke: "I do not know,"
she said. She noticed the two women smiling and exchanging glances.

Said Mrs. Soher sarcastically: "I thought you knew Mrs. B."

"Yes," answered her niece, "I know her, but I am continually
detecting faults in my temper which have to be overcome; and I find
that I have quite enough to do to look after myself without
bothering about others."

If ever you saw two people looking six ways for Sunday, it was Mrs.
Soher and her daughter.

After a few moments of embarrassing silence, Mr. Soher, who had not
yet spoken a word, said something about young people being
respectful to their superiors; while Tom laughed at the two women
and smiled approvingly at his cousin.

Adele took her departure early and was not asked to remain longer.
When she was once more in the open, she felt a great weight lifted
from her breast. She was now free, free to entertain herself with
nature, away from the stagnant atmosphere of the "Prenoms." She
walked along, her whole being revolting against the useless, ay,
more than useless talk she had heard. But when she looked at the
flowers that grew on the hedges which bordered the lane in which she
was walking, her soul was filled with a sweet balm. Here was the ivy
climbing upwards taking its support and some of its nourishment from
the hedge which it was scaling, always gaining fresh ground. Such is
the man who has r