"First cousins, sir," returned Charlie, laughing, "sisters' children. Can't you and I claim kin, seeing she's cousin to both of us?"
A sudden dash of rain prevented Edward's reply, and sent them all scurrying into the house.
CHAPTER XX.
"A little more than kin and a little less than kind."
—Shakespeare.
Our little party had scarcely seated themselves in the parlor, where a number of the guests of the house were already gathered, when the invalid gentleman was assisted in by his servant and took possession of an easy chair which Mrs. Perkins hastened to offer him.
He thanked her courteously as he sank back in it with a slight sigh as of one in pain.
Violet, close at his side, regarded him with pitying eyes. "I fear you suffer a great deal, sir," she said, low and feelingly, when Mary, her next neighbor, had introduced them.
"Yes, a good deal, but less than when I came."