"My dear Jeannie, were I to make the clean sweep you name, the room would be horribly bare-looking. I do not agree with making a place ugly because of 'associations,' but without our present 'ornaments,' my reception room would be a wilderness."
"There are the loveliest muslins and cretonnes, ever so cheap," began Jeannie; but Norah stopped her by saying quietly—
"I have no money for such things, dear."
"You cannot mean that, Norah. They would cost so little."
"I do mean it, Jeannie, though perhaps many beside yourself would hardly believe me. I think I must keep on saying it, for if people plead poverty, those who hear generally give them credit for ample means," added Norah, with a light laugh.
Afterwards, it seemed to the girl as if she became conscious of many wants and defects in her surroundings, of which before Jeannie's visit she had been blissfully unaware. It was in those first few days, too, that Jack Corry's defection took place, and after his hurried call, Norah remembered, with acute pain, the glance he had cast at her comparatively countrified dress.
"He will compare Jeannie's surroundings with mine; her dainty silks and laces, her costly furs at hand when needed, with my simple stuffs and cottons; and my plain cloth jacket, which is in its third season, and which I have been taking such care of that it may last another! And Jeannie can be so charming that no one can withstand her. As a child she could do as she liked with me, even. Well, if it should be so, I only hope that she may not play with Jack's heart. I should be sorry for that; after all, I should like them both to be happy and true, if they care for each other."
Dear, unselfish Norah! A little sob followed this mental communing, for Jack Corry was the first who had stirred the depths of her pure, tender heart, and how could she help knowing that he had wooed her with everything but words? At their last meeting before Jeannie's return, these had seemed trembling on his lips; and now!
Norah's prophetic foreboding was speedily fulfilled. Jack Corry, as her young brothers said, was "for ever at Benvora, or riding or walking with Jeannie Bellew."
Her parents were evidently in favour of such companionship, and Mrs. Bellew especially smiled benignly on handsome Jack Corry, as he became daily more marked in his attentions to the girl. She had a talk with her husband on the subject, for, truth to say, Mr. Bellew was not at first altogether satisfied with the turn affairs had taken, and he said so.