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266 manner amongst strangers, and did not appear to condescend to her host and hostess, so that they

did not feel how much she considered herself their superior.

Mrs. Lindsay had a lurking idea that this fair-spoken lady wished still to wile Amy away from Branxholm, and saw some stratagem in the friendly overtures, but it only seemed to make the good woman more original and amusing than her wont; and Mrs. Troubridge thought Mr. Lufton, who had often spoken of Mrs. Lindsay's kindness and motherly ways, had not done half justice to her cleverness and quickness of observation. Hugh Lindsay was shrewd and quiet, Isabel very lively, and Allan wonderfully intelligent, and by no means such a boor as might have been expected, and, what was more than that, he was remarkably handsome. No contemptible rival to the unlucky Mr. Lufton after all, though, true to her old friendship, she determined to further his cause as much as she could, and pressed for an early visit at Richlands from Miss Staunton, which she said had been promised to her.

Mrs. Lindsay received this invitation coldly, but said, of course Amy might please herself.

"The children have talked about you constantly since you were with us that one evening,