"There, there, children!--stop showing your jealousy," laughed Mrs. Cooney; and her eyes rested with a brief wistfulness on the shining niece who plumed eagle's feathers for flights where her daughters would never follow. "You'd all give your eye-teeth to be half as pretty and attractive as Cally ..." "Yes'm," said Chas. "Well, then, Cally, have one more sardine, _please_. Nothing on earth for the complexion like these fat saline fellows that mother catches fresh every morning with her little hook and line.--Mind, _Loo_! You're joggling The Bowl." Carlisle was hardly to be overwhelmed by the Cooneys' teasing, nor perhaps was she seriously displeased by it. Even less did the detail of her eccentric cousins' knowledge surprise her. If there was a fight or a fire, a _bon mot_ launched or a heart broken, money made or a death died, it invariably happened that one of the Cooneys was "just passing."... In the middle of the table stood an object of shiny green crockery, which seemed to be a cross between a fruit-dish and a vase. Most of the table service was quite familiar to Carlisle, not a little of it having started life as Christmas presents from the Heths. But this crockery piece was new, and, upon Chas's admonition, its shiny hideousness caught and riveted her attention. "Aunt Rose Hopwood's parting gift," said Tee Wee, softly, following her fascinated gaze. "Oh, Cally, ain't it boo'ful!" "Theodore," said his mother, quite sharply, "I don't think your stay at the University has improved your manners." Theodore colored abruptly and deeply. "Why, I--I was only funning, mother." "I think that's a very poor sort of funning. And this applies to you, too, Charles." "Yes'm," said Charles, starting. The eldest-born made no other reply to his mother, nor did Theodore: meekness under parental reproof being another of the odd Cooney characteristics. Conversation seemed about to languish; but Mrs. Cooney, as if to show that the episode was closed, said equably: "By the way, Cally, Cousin Martha Heth is coming next week to make us quite a visit. If you are not too busy, do try to come in some time, and cheer her up. She is going to take treatment for her nose and also for flatfoot, and I fear is very miserable."