’There now, I declare,’ said Miss Hodson, ’that did not sound like an English person speaking, and yet I could not tell you where the difference was. I really think it is more manner than accent. The boatmen and the girls at the inn—they all speak as if they were anxious to please you.’ ’Then it cannot be a very disagreeable accent,’ said Meenie, laughing in her quiet way. ’No, no; I like it. I like it very much. Ronald now, has nothing of that; he is positive and dogmatic—I would say gruff in his way of talking, if he was not so obliging. But he is very obliging and good-natured; there is just nothing he won’t do for us—and we are perfect strangers to him.’ And so she prattled on, apparently quite satisfied that now they were good friends; while Meenie had almost forgotten her shyness in the interest with which she listened to this remarkable young lady who had been all over the world and yet took her travelling so much as a matter of course. Then Miss Hodson said— ’You know my father and I soon exhaust our remarks on the events of the day when we sit down to dinner; and we were wondering whether you would take pity on our solitude and come along and dine with us this evening. Will you? I wish you would—it would be just too kind of you.’ Meenie hesitated. ’I would like very well,’ said she, ’but—but my mother and the lad have driven away to Tongue to fetch my father home—and it may be late before they are back——’ ’The greater reason why you should come—why, to think of your sitting here alone! I will come along for you myself. And if you are afraid of having too much of the star-spangled banner, we’ll get somebody else in who is not an American; I mean to ask Ronald if he will come in and spend the evening with us—or come in to dinner as well, if he has time——’ Now the moment she uttered these words she perceived the mistake she had made. Meenie all at once looked troubled, conscious, apprehensive—there was a touch of extra colour in her face: perhaps she was annoyed that she was betraying this embarrassment. ’I think some other night, if you please,’ the girl said, in a low voice, and with her eyes cast down, ’some other night, when mamma is at home—I would like to ask her first.’ ’Class distinctions,’ said Miss Carry to herself, as she regarded this embarrassment with her observant eyes. ’Fancy class distinctions in a little community like this—in mid-winter too! Of course the Doctor’s daughter must not sit down to dinner with Lord Ailine’s head keeper.’ But she could not offer to leave Ronald out—that would but have added to the girl’s confusion, whatever was the cause of it. She merely said lightly— ’Very well, then, some other evening you will take pity on us—and I hope before I go to Paris. And then I want you to let me come in now and again and have a cup of tea with you; and I get all the illustrated periodicals sent me from home—with the fashion-plates, you know.’ She rose.