"Earl Douglass is not a very polished specimen," said Fleda,
smiling; "but I assure you, in some of 'these people' there is
an amount of goodness and wit, and shrewd practical sense and
judgment, that would utterly distance many of those that would
call them bears."

Constance looked a good deal more than she said.

"My dear little Fleda! you're too sensible for anything; but
as I don't like sense from anybody but Mr. Carleton, I would
rather look at you in the capacity of a rose, smiling a gentle
rebuke upon me while I talk nonsense."

And she did talk, and Fleda did smile and laugh, in spite of
herself, till Mrs. Evelyn and her other daughters made their
appearance.

Then Barby said she thought they'd have talked the house down;
and she expected there'd be nothing left of Fleda after all
the kissing she got. But it was not too much for Fleda's
pleasure. Mrs. Evelyn was so tenderly kind, and Miss Evelyn as
caressing as her sister had been, and Edith, who was but a
child, so joyously delighted, that Fleda's eyes were swimming
in happiness as she looked from one to the other, and she
could hardly answer kisses and questions fast enough.

"Them is good-looking enough girls," said Barby, as Fleda came
back to the house after seeing them to their carriage, if they
knowed how to dress themselves. I never see this fly-away one
afore. I knowed the old one as soon as I clapped my eyes onto