our friends coming to meet you?"

"They are. I guess they'll be waiting on the platform. She's tall and
fine-looking, and dresses fit to kill--"

She paused with a sharp little intake of breath, for the train, as it
snorted into the station, had passed by the figure of a woman standing
conspicuously alone--a tall woman, with hair of a violent peroxide gold,
holding up an elaborate white gown, to display a petticoat of flounced
pink silk. It was Cornelia's first introduction to Mrs Moffatt in
"shore clothes," and to an eye accustomed to Norton simplicity the
vision was sufficiently startling. Also--it was hateful to think such
things--but, that hair! On the steamer it had been just an ordinary
brown!

Cornelia would have died rather than own it, but she felt a qualm. On
the platform she saw other ladies standing waiting the arrival of the
train; smart, well-dressed, even golden-headed ladies not a few, but
none in the least resembling Mrs Silas P Moffatt. A swift desire arose
that Guest might depart before her hostess made her way through the
crowd, followed by a resigned recollection that that would be of no
avail, since the two were bound to meet sooner or later. She stepped
out of the carriage, keeping her head turned in an opposite direction,
but almost immediately a crisp rustling of skirts, a strong odour of
violette de parme, and a loud--"Say! is that you?" proclaimed that the
search was at an end.

Cornelia forced a smile to her lips, and acknowledged her identity in
suitable terms, and Mrs Moffatt gushed over her, in a Yankee accent,
strong enough to cut with a knife, casting the while, arch, questioning
glances in Guest's direction. Cornelia suffered qualm number two. Even
to her ears, the tone of her friend's voice sounded unduly loud and
nasal, and looking from her to her late travelling companion, it
appeared that to be "English" need not be invariably a disadvantage. Of
course, Mrs Moffatt was not a good type of American; she belonged to
the class who brought that honourable title into disrepute. How was it
that she herself had hitherto been blind to peculiarities which now
aroused an instant prejudice?

"Don't you want to introduce me to your friend, dear? I never came
across such a girl. Someone flying around after you wherever you go!"
cried Mrs Moffatt, genially, and Cornelia mumbled the necessary words,
with an unusual display of embarrassment. She dared not look at the
expression