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"Not a very near connection, Captain Rexford," was his reply; and it was given with that frank smile which always leaped first to his eyes before it showed itself about his mouth.

It was a strange story this young girl told her; it seemed more like a romance than a page from life's history. "You say you must prevent this marriage at Whitestone Hall." She took Daisy's clasped hands from her weeping face, and holding them in her own looked into it silently, keenly, steadily. "How could you do it? What is Rexford Lyon to you?"

"Mamma!" she took off her gloves energetically as she spoke "there is nothing for it but to ask Louise to get up and do the milking the mere milking and I will carry the pails." Louise was the pale-faced Canadian servant. She often told them she preferred to be called "Loulou," but in this she was not indulged. Mrs. Rexford stirred Dottie's porridge in a small saucepan.

Rexford, the girls and the darning basket, while some of the children climbed upon the box. Blue and Red, who were highly delighted with the arrangement, explained it to Trenholme.

"Yours very truly, "REXFORD LYON." There was a low, gasping, piteous cry; and the little figure at the window slipped down among the soft, billowy curtains in a deadly swoon; but the three, so deeply engrossed in discussing the contents of the note, did not notice it. At last Daisy opened her eyes, and the blue eyes were dazed with pain.

"What is she like?" asked Alec, for he had confessed that he had talked to the lady. "Like?" repeated Robert, at a loss; "I think she must be like her own mother, for she is like none of the other Rexfords." "All the rest of the family are good-looking." "Yes," said Robert dreamily. So Alec jumped to the conclusion that Robert did not consider Miss Rexford good-looking.

"It strikes me," said Harold, the eldest son, "a good deal depends on what he did say to Eliza. Eliza!" This last was a shout, and the girl responded to it, so that there were now two figures at the door, Mrs. Rexford drying the dish, and Eliza standing quite quietly and at ease. "Yes, my son," responded Captain Rexford, "it does depend a good deal on what he did say to Eliza. Rexford that "

Rexford, her mind ever upon some practical exigency, now remembered that she had also heard that the Bennetts managed their dairy excellently, and, having a large craving for help on all such subjects, she began to bewail her own ignorance, asking many and various questions; but, although she did not perceive it, it soon became apparent to her more observant daughter that the visitors, having come out to make a call of ceremony, preferred to talk on subjects more remote from their daily drudgery, on subjects which they apparently considered more elegant and becoming.

They had bought it and its furniture as a mere adjunct to a farm which they had chosen with more care, and when they inspected it for the first time their hearts sank somewhat within them. Captain Rexford, with impressive sadness, remarked to his wife that there was a greater lack of varnish and upholstery and of traces of the turning lathe than he could have supposed possible in "furniture."

Yet, in spite of all that Trenholme's pleasure in the letter and the possession of the photograph might betoken, the missive, addressed to a lady named Miss Rexford, was not a love-letter. It ran thus: