that she might examine her carefully.

Beth did not respond to the caress. She eyed her opponent sharply,
for she knew well enough, even in that first moment, that they were
engaged in a struggle for supremacy in Aunt Jane's affections, and
that in the battles to come no quarter could be asked or expected.

So they stood at arm's length, facing one another and secretly forming
an estimate each of the other's advantages and accomplishments.

"She's pretty enough, but has no style whatever," was Louise's
conclusion. "Neither has she tact nor self-possession, or even a
prepossessing manner. She wears her new gown in a dowdy manner and one
can read her face easily. There's little danger in this quarter, I'm
sure, so I may as well be friends with the poor child."

As for Beth, she saw at once that her "new cousin" was older and more
experienced in the ways of the world, and therefore liable to prove
a dangerous antagonist. Slender and graceful of form, attractive
of feature and dainty in manner, Louise must be credited with
many advantages; but against these might be weighed her evident
insincerity--the volubility and gush that are so often affected to
hide one's real nature, and which so shrewd and suspicious a woman as
Aunt Jane could not fail to readily detect. Altogether, Beth was not
greatly disturbed by her cousin's appearance, and suddenly realizing
that they had been staring at one another rather rudely, she said,
pleasantly enough:

"Won't you sit down?"