She was trying to read Diana as she spoke, eyeing her with sidelong glances, and as they went, laying her daintily gloved hand on Diana's arm to help herself along. Diana was astounded both at her confidence and at her request for counsel; but as to meet the request would be to return the confidence, she was silent. She was thinking, too, of the elegant little boot Mrs. Reverdy had displayed, and contrasting it with her own coarse shoes. And how very familiar these two were, that he should speak to her by her first name so! "Miss Starling!" cried the other lady behind her,--"do you know we have been following your lead all the way we were coming this morning?" "Mr. Knowlton said so," Diana replied, half turning. "Aren't you very much flattered?" This time Diana turned quite, and faced the two. "My mother was driving, Mrs. Reverdy." "Ah?" said the other with a very amused laugh. "But you could have done it just as well, I suppose." What does she mean? thought Diana. "Can you do anything?" inquired the gay lady on her arm. "I am a useless creature; I can only fire a pistol, and leap a fence on horseback, and dance a polka. What can you do? I dare say you are worth a great deal more than me. Can you make butter and bread and pudding and pies and sweetmeats and pickles, and all that sort of thing? I dare say you can." "I can do that." "And all I am good for is to eat them! I can do that. Do you make cheeses too?" "I can. My mother generally makes the cheese." "O, but I mean you. What do people do on a farm? women, I mean. I know what the men do. You know all about it. Do you have to milk the cows and feed everything?--chickens and pigs, you know, and all that?" "The men milk," said Diana. "And you have to do those other things? Isn't it horrid?" "It is not horrid to feed the chickens. I never had anything to do with the pigs." "O, but Evan says you know how to harness horses." Does he? thought Diana. "And you can cut wood?" "Cut wood!" Diana repeated. "Did anybody say I could do that?" "I don't know--Yes, I think so. I forget. But you can, can't you?" "I never tried, Miss Masters." "Do you know my cousin, Mr. Masters?--the minister, you know?" "Yes, I know him a little." "Do you like him?" "I like him,--yes, I don't know anything against him," said Diana in great bewilderment. "O, but I do. Don't you know he says it is wicked to do a great many things that we do? he thinks everybody is wicked who don't do just as he does. Now I don't think everybody is bound to be a minister. He thinks it is wicked to dance; and I don't care to live if I can't dance." "That is being very fond of it," said Diana. "Do you dance her, in the country?" "Sometimes; not very often." "Isn't it very dull here in the winter, when you can't go after blackberries?"