'I began to think we should never see her more,' said Elizabeth;
'there was no gentleman at Dykelands to escort her, and Papa was too
busy to fetch her, till at last, Captain Atherley, Mrs. Staunton's
brother, took pity upon her, or rather on us, and brought her home.'

'Captain Atherley is the only one of the family whom I have ever
seen,' said Anne; 'I have always wished to know something more of
them, they were all such friends of Papa's and Mamma's and Aunt
Katherine's.'

'If you wish to hear anything of Mrs. Staunton and her daughters,'
said Elizabeth, 'you have only to ask Helen; you will open the flood-
gates of a stream, which has overwhelmed us all, ever since she came
home.'

'Then I hope Helen likes them as well as they seem to like her,' said
Anne; 'Mrs. Staunton spoke very highly of her in her letter to
Mamma.'

'Oh yes,' said Elizabeth, 'they seem to have done nothing but sit
with their mouths open, admiring her; and she really is very much
improved, positively grown a reflective creature, and the most
graceful as well as the prettiest of the family. She would be almost
a beau ideal of a sister, if she had but a few more home feelings,
or, as you say, if she did not like the Stauntons quite so much. I
wonder what you will think of her. Now are you ready? Let us come
down.'

When the two cousins came into the drawing-room, they found the rest
of the ladies already there. Katherine and Helen Woodbourne were