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 the little half-curls of the same rich tint that fell over her mother’s forehead brushed wavelessly back on each side of a deep widow’s peak.

The two older ones laughed.

“Always uncompromising, Lady Jane!” the colonel cried.

“I assure you, colonel, when Lady begins to mark iniquities, few of us stand!”

Jane smiled gravely, as on two children. “You know very well that is nonsense,” she said.

Black Hannah appeared in the door, beaming and curtsying to the colonel.

“You-all ready foh yoh tea, Miss Lady?” she inquired.

A sudden recollection threw Mrs. Leroy into one of her irresistible fits of gentle laughter.

“Oh, Lady,” she murmured, “do you remember that impossible creature that lectured me about Hannah’s asking you for orders? Did I tell you about it, colonel?”

Jane shook her head reprovingly.