With Julia it was different. She called herself a lady, versed in every point of politeness and breeding, and yet she could deliberately stoop to wound a girl who had never injured her, and whose only crime was her poverty. Arrayed in her longest train of dark blue silk, her hair in the very latest style, as reported by Alice Creighton, who was then in New York, she swept haughtily into the room, and with a slight inclination of her head to Edith, and a slighter one to Gertie, took her seat, and while the soup, which she never took, was serving, occupied herself with a French novel, occasionally fixing her eyes upon Gertie, who was made very uncomfortable in consequence. Colonel Schuyler had not yet returned from town, but he came before dinner was over. He was very sorry for the ungraciousness of his manner when talking with his wife of Gertie, and the pained expression of her face had haunted him all the afternoon, and been the cause of his driving round by the cottage on his way home. “I can at least do that,” he thought; “and the roads are worse than I supposed.” But the cottage was empty, and the colonel drove home alone, resolving to be very kind to the orphan girl for Edith’s sake and conquer all his fears for Godfrey until he saw something tangible, when it would be time to act. So when he entered the dining-room and met Gertie’s eyes raised so timidly to his, he went to her, and offering her his hand, bade her welcome to his house, and said: “I drove to the cottage for you, but was too late. I fear you found the walking very bad?” She had not minded it, she said, while the beaming glance which Edith gave him told him that his peace was made with her, and he became exceedingly urbane, and even talkative, and addressing some pleasant remarks to Gertie, made her feel more at ease, if possible, than Edith’s reassuring words had done. She was very pretty, and graceful, and modest, and he watched her movements with an interest he could not define, and compared her with Alice Creighton and his own daughters, who, so far as beauty was concerned, fell far in the scale.