"A duster," she answered instantly--this time without looking up. Now the said duster was of the finest cambric; so that Alec could not help seeing that she was making game of him. This banished his shyness, and put him on his mettle. "I see," he said, "when I ask questions, you--" "Tell lies," she interposed, without giving him time even to hesitate; adding, "Does your mother answer all your questions, Mr Forbes?" "I believe she does--one way or other." "Then it is sometimes the other way? Is she nice?" "Who?" returned Alec, surprised into doubt. "Your mother." "She's the best woman in the world," he answered with vehemence, almost shocked at having to answer such a question. "Oh! I beg your pardon," returned Kate, laughing; and the laugh curled her lip, revealing very pretty teeth, with a semi-transparent pearly-blue shadow in them. "I am glad she is nice," she went on. "I should like to know her. Mothers are not _always_ nice. I knew a girl at school whose mother wasn't nice at all." She did not laugh after this childish speech, but let her face settle into perfect stillness--sadness indeed, for a shadow came over the stillness. Mr Fraser sat watching the two with his amused old face, one side of it twitching in the effort to suppress the smile which sought to break from the useful half of his mouth. His gout could not have been very bad just then. "I see, Katie, what that long chin of yours is thinking," he said. "What is my chin thinking, uncle?" she asked. "That uncles are not always nice either. They snub little girls, sometimes, don't they?" "I know one who _is_ nice, all except one naughty leg." She rose, as she said this, and going round to the back of his chair, leaned over it, and kissed his forehead. The old man looked up to her gratefully. "Ah, Katie!" he said, "you may make game of an old man like me. But don't try your tricks on Mr Forbes there. He won't stand them." Alec blushed. Kate went back to her seat, and took up her duster again. Alec was a little short-sighted, though he had never discovered it till now. When Kate leaned over her uncle's chair, near which he was sitting, he saw that she was still prettier than he had thought her before.--There are few girls who to a short-sighted person look prettier when they come closer; the fact being that the general intent of the face, which the generalizing effect of the shortness of the sight reveals, has ordinarily more of beauty in it than has yet been carried out in detail; so that, as the girl approaches, one face seems to melt away, and another, less beautiful, to dawn up through it.