Miss Clifford made her approaches obliquely at first.
"I ought to apologize to you for not returning your call before this. At
any rate, here I am at last."
"You are most welcome, Miss Clifford," said Mary, warmly.
"Now the ice is broken, I want you to call me Julia."
"May I?"
"You may, and you must, if I call you Mary. Why, you know we are cousins;
at least I suppose so. We are both cousins of Walter Clifford, so we must
be cousins to each other."
And she fixed her eyes on her fair hostess in a very peculiar way.
Mary returned this fixed look with such keen intelligence that her gray
eyes actually scintillated.
"Mary, I seldom waste much time before I come to the point. Walter
Clifford is a good fellow; he has behaved well to me. I had a quarrel
with mine, and Walter played the peace-maker, and brought us together
again without wounding my pride. By-and-by I found out Walter himself was
in grief about you. It was my turn, wasn't it? I made him tell me all. He
wasn't very willing, but I would know.
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