rs. Banker had thus early taken her up,
and who, besides, had conceived a capricious fancy to patronize Miss
Lennox. But in this she was foiled, for Helen was not to be patronized,
and she received her visitors with that calm, assured manner so much a
part of herself.

"Diamond cut diamond," Bell thought, as she saw how frigidly polite
both Juno and Helen were, each recognizing in the other something
antagonistic, which could never harmonize.

Had Juno never cared for Dr. Grant, or suspected Helen of standing
between herself and him, and had Mark Ray never stopped at Silverton, or
been seen on Broadway with her, she might have judged her differently,
for there was something attractive in Helen's face and appearance as
she sat talking to her guests, not awkwardly nor timidly, but with as
much quiet dignity as if she had never mended Uncle Ephraim's socks, or
made a pound of butter among the huckleberry hills. Bell was delighted,
detecting at once traces of the rare mind which Helen Lennox possessed,
and wondering to find it so.

"I hope we shall see each other often," she said, at parting. "I do not
go out a great deal myself--that is, not as much as Juno--but I shall be
always glad to welcome you to my den. You may find something there to
interest you."

This was Bell's leave-taking, while Sybil's was, if possible, even more
friendly, for aside from really fancying Helen, she took a perverse kind
of pleasure in annoying Juno, who wondered "what she or Bell could see
to like in that awkward country girl, whom she knew had on one of Katy's
cast-off collars, and her wardrobe was the most ordinary she ever saw;
fitch furs, think of that!" and Juno gave a little pull at the
fastenings of her rich ermine collar, showing so well over her velvet
basquine.

"Fitch furs or not, they rode with Mark Ray on Broadway," Bell retorted,
with a wicked look in her eyes, which aroused Juno to a still higher
pitch of anger, so that by the time the carriage stopped at No. ----,
the young lady was in a most unamiable frame of mind as regarded both
Helen Lennox and the offending Mark.

That evening there was at Mrs. Reynolds' a little company of thirty
or more, and as Mark was present, Juno seized the opportunity for
ascertaining, if possible, his real opinion of Helen Lennox, joking him
first about his having taken her to ride so soon, and insinuating that
he must have a penchant for every new and pretty face.

"Then you think her pr