112 THE COUSINS.

“Not till this week: father told mother last
night that Mr. Smith told him yesterday that he
had some grand people from New York at his
house; he said they had brought their carriage
and horses with them, and their own help. They
have a sick baby, so Mr. Smith didn’t mind their
bringing somebody to ’tend that ; but they brought
a woman to cook, too, just as if Mrs. Smith
couldn’t cook good enough for them.”

‘What seemed so unreasonable to Clara was with
Lucy quite a recommendation to Mr. Smith’s
boarders. ‘I shouldn’t wonder,” said she to
Mary, “if it was the Nocls. Ann told me in
New York, her little brother was sick, and she
knew we were coming here, and so she may have
begged her father to come where she could be
near me—you know we are so intimate.” Lucy
spoke to Mary, but what she said was really meant
to show Clara that she had friends of the same
class with these “grand folks” at Mr. Smith’s.
Neither Mary nor Clara replied to her; for, while
Clara cared little about the matter, Mary was
silently hoping that their neighbours would prove
to be more civil people than Ann and Tom Noel.