When they entered the dining-room together, a displeased frown crossed Mrs. Randolph's face. And Julia stared at her cousin as though she was not quite sure of her identity. But her uncle made some kindly inquiries as to how she felt after her long journey. But it was an intense relief to Mabel when dinner was over and they were free to retire to the drawing-room. But it soon became evident that something had displeased both Mrs. Randolph and Julia. And Mabel surmised that she must have displeased them, for they never spoke a word to her the whole evening, but allowed her to sit and turn over an album of photographic views without taking the slightest notice of her. Now the fact was, she had raised a storm of anger and suspicion in her aunt's mind by wearing such a pretty dress. To the jealous watchful mother, this seemed like an attempt to put herself on a level with Julia at once, and she resolved to thwart it. So she told her daughter to take no notice of her cousin, while Isabel slipped away to spend the evening with her father in his study, leaving, as she thought, her cousin and sister to become mutually acquainted with each other. Poor Mabel! She felt ready to cry with mortification before the evening was half over, for there sat her aunt toying with a piece of fancy work, but never speaking a word, while Julia reclined in a low chair reading a novel, and utterly ignoring her presence. How dreary that grand drawing-room looked to Mabel in spite of its splendid satin furniture and luxurious lounges, and costly and elegant trifles that everywhere abounded! She grew tired of looking at photographic views very soon, and then took to looking round the room. Then she ventured to cross over and look at her aunt's work, and timidly put a question about it, but Mrs. Randolph gave a short answer and at once folded up her work and took a book that was lying near. Thus repulsed, Mabel could only return to her seat and yawn through the next hour, until Isabel came from the study to announce that it was time to go to bed, and bid her mother and sister good-night. It was an unutterable relief to Mabel to escape from the presence of her aunt, and yet she somehow resented the idea of being sent up to bed in this summary fashion. She felt hurt and angry, too, at the treatment she had received. And so her farewell to Isabel before she went to her own room was not so warm and cordial as they otherwise would have been. And gentle, sensitive Isabel was sent to bed with an aching heart and a dim foreboding that her cousin would not love her after all. —————— CHAPTER IV. THE SOWER AND THE SEED.