The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-04-10

married nm.
 She took the conversation into her own hands, and explained to Mrs. Bardsley that she had been too busy during the winter trying to get her house in order, to be able to think of social duties, but that she now hoped to do better. Her husband had given her a motor and she should be able to get about, as with the coming of spring the roads seemed likely to become passable, a boon she had not dared to hope for during the terrible winter.
 The maid brought in a very elabo- rate tea, and they talked laborlously on. the good temper of Mrs. Trent remaining apparently impervious to snubs She wondered what could be done to draw the neighborhood,w which seemed so scattered, together. Could they start a Shakespeare Reading So- ciety, or an Amateur Dramatic So- ciety? Vernon did not know. She had no experience in such matters. MT. Trent supposed the Umfravilles wanted things done. Vernon still did not know.
 Mrs Trent wondered whether, if she fetched Mrs. Bardsley in her motor, she would take her to call upon Sel- ma Umfraville. Mrs. Bardsley thought Miss Umfraville would prefer to call upon Mrs. Trent first. Mrs. Trent asked; in tones or innocent sur prise, whether these hard and fast rules were still in existence? She had hoped that, even in the province, people were now accepted for what they were, more than who they were.
 Mrs. Bardsley said that she hop ed and believed that that was so But in the country things moved slow ly, and minds were not made up in a moment She was feeling miser- ably uncomfortable. With all her heart she was grateful to this woman for the way in which she had be- friended the girl on whom she had already fixed her fierce and narrow affections. She felt acutely that some return for such hospitality was de- manded of her by her own conscience. Yet every word spoken by Mrs. Trent was increasing her aversion.
 However, Emma Bardsley was nev- CT one to finch from her duty. She duly brought out her invitation for the Trents to dine at Carronlea one day the following weeek. It was accepted graciously, without any ap- pearance of undue elation. Dan was not a diner-out He preferred his own fireside. But to an informal dinner and with the chance of again meeting a young lady, whom he had much admired-there was a mis- chievous glance at Vernon, which she found 1t impossible to meet with a smile.
 Not word was said of Jem, from first to last. Mrs. Bardsley, having endured for twenty minutes, rose and made her adieux: and Vernon follow whether this could be indeed herself. this stuck-up, stand-of miss, who re- sented chaff ,repelled overtures of friendship, and was not completely free of the impulse to gather up her skirts from contact with the perfum- ed frills of the lady of Barrow End. ! Both her aunt and she were silent for while; as the brougham bowled them along to their next visit, which was to Ponthewel, as it chanced At last Vernon said, in a tone of irritation, 1T thought that I was a democrat. But I find that I am eith- CT prig, or Pharisee, or both.'' Mrs. Bardsley looked at her with a | twinkle in her eye: there was an odd. unexpected sympathy between these two women, born perhaps of kinship, but real and profound. 'fYes. That just how I feel" she returned. What is it?" asked the girl doubs- fully.
 : "I do not know, and to hazard a guess would be uncharita ble," was the reply. eff I saw any likelihood of your becoming intimate thereI would warn you. As things are, that seems quite unnecessary"
 | They both smiled, and Mrs. Bard sley turned the subject.
 Ponthewel is a gray stone Tudor house, which owing to the compara- i tive poverty of its owners in the eighteenth and early nineteenth cen- turies, miraculously escaped the hands of the restorer, and fronts it's grassy park with its mullions and dripstones, and its old arched door way leading straight into the hall, un- changed. Vernon would have liked to penetrate into the interior, and was disappointed when the unliveried manservant replied that the baronet and his sister were not at home.
 But I rather fancy, madam" said he, that they are gone to Carronlea. l think I heard Miss Umfraville ex- press that intention at lunch, mad am"
 They returned home forthwith, and found the Umfraviliex there, seated in