The fact is, I've found two nieces," looking shrewdly from one face into the other, "and I seem to be in luck, for you're quite pretty and ladylike, my dears." "Thank you," said Louise, rather coldly.

"You're a competent judge, sir, I suppose." "Tolerable," he responded, with a chuckle.

"So good a judge that I've kep' single all my life." "Where did you come from ?" asked the girl.
"From out on the coast," tossing his grizzled head toward the west.
"What brought you back here, after all these years ?" "Family affection, I guess.

Wanted to find out what folks yet belonged to me." An awkward silence followed this, during which Uncle John relighted his pipe and Beth sat in moody silence.

Louise drew a pattern in the gravel with the end of her parasol.