In that case we'll disappoint it." Whatever they expected, therefore, it was not Advena.

It was not a tall young woman with expressive eyes, a manner which was at once abrupt and easy, and rather a lounging way of occupying the corner of a sofa.

"When she sat down," as Mrs Kilbannon said afterward, "she seemed to untie and fling herself as you might a parcel." Neither Mrs Kilbannon nor Christie Cameron could possibly be untied or flung, so perhaps they gave this capacity in Advena more importance than it had.

But it was only a part of what was to them a new human demonstration, something to inspect very carefully and accept very cautiously--the product, like themselves, yet so suspiciously different, of these free airs and these astonishingly large ideas.

In some ways, as she sat there in her graceful dress and careless attitude, asking them direct smiling questions about their voyage, she imposed herself as of the class whom both these ladies of Bross would acknowledge unquestioningly to be "above" them; in others she seemed to be of no class at all; so far she came short of small standards of speech and behaviour.