frankness and dignity with which they met all.

"You may trust well-bred American girls anywhere," she said to her
brother as she met him later in the evening, after all her guests had
been welcomed, "especially such as are ours," and she called his
attention to Barbara, who at that moment was approaching on the arm of a
distinguished-looking man, who was evidently absorbed with his fair
companion.

Perfectly unconscious of herself, she moved with so much of womanly
grace that Robert Sumner was startled. She seemed like a stranger; this
tall, queenly creature could not be the everyday Barbara who had been
little more than a child to him. In passing she looked with a loving
smile at Mrs. Douglas, and then for a moment her eyes with the light
still in them met his, and slowly turned away. The soft flush on her
cheek deepened, and Robert Sumner felt the swift blood surge back upon
his heart until his head swam. When last had he seen such a look in
woman's eyes? Ah! how he had loved those sweet dark eyes long years ago!
Oh! the desolate longing!

Mrs. Douglas's look had followed Barbara--then had sought Bettina, who,
with Margery by her side, was surrounded by a little group of admirers;
so she was conscious of nothing unusual. But Miss Sherman, who stood
near, had seen Barbara's flush and noted Mr. Sumner's momentary pallor,
and afterward his evident effort to be just himself again. What could it
mean? she thought.

All through the evening she had suffered from a little unreasonable
jealousy as she had realized for the first time that these "Burnett
girls,"--mere companions of Margery, as she had always thought of