The daughter is ridiculously like her; you seem to jump over twenty years as you look from one to the other; the same figure, but a little stouter, the same hair, but a little thinner, the same eyes, but gone a little deeper in, the same complexion, but a little thickened, the same smile, but a little more effort in getting it to come. They are about the same height, and they wreathe their arms about each other, and smile back and forward, and pose and prattle like a vaudeville." "Really, my dear, you made good use of your time. How many minutes were you in their company, I should like to know?" "They arrived about twenty minutes before eight,--it is now ten minutes past. That is just how long I have known them." "Well, dear, for half an hour, I think you are rather venomous. But though I don't take your judgment of them altogether, I wish they hadn't seen fit to accept Mr. Andrews' invitation, or that Mr. Andrews hadn't seen fit to offer them an invitation. Don't let it all bother you, Missy. It has been rather a muddle from the beginning. I think you'll have to make up your mind to let Jay go, though it will be pretty hard." "Hard!" cried Missy, bitterly. "But of course, I've made up my mind to it. I went through it all that evening on the lawn, when Mr. Andrews told us that they were to come. It is but with one object that he brought them, it will have but one end." "I don't believe that he brought them with this object, but I acknowledge that it may possibly end in giving the poor little fellow a stepmother. I am afraid he is the sort of man that is easily taken in." Missy's face expressed scorn. "Yes, he is just that sort of man, and if he didn't drag poor Jay in with him, I should say I was glad he had got the fate that he deserved." "Hardly that, Missy. He has always been very nice to you, and I can't think why you feel so towards him. But I've always felt it was a mistake for people to garner up their hearts in other people's children, and I've wished, from the beginning, that you cared less for the boy. Give it up now, dear, and make up your mind to interest yourself in other things." "That's very easy to say. I've made up my mind so a hundred times in the last week, but it doesn't stay made up, and I shall go on caring for him till he's taken away from me, and a good while after, I'm afraid." CHAPTER XX. THE HONEYED COUSINS.