CHAPTER IX. 

COUSINS. 

"Come in," called Beth, answering a knock at her door. 

Louise entered, and with a little cry ran forward and caught Beth in her arms, kissing her in greeting. 

"You must be my new cousin--Cousin Elizabeth--and I'm awfully glad to see you at last!" she said, holding the younger girl a little away, that she might examine her carefully. 

Beth did not respond to the caress. She eyed her opponent sharply, for she knew well enough, even in that first moment, that they were engaged in a struggle for supremacy in Aunt Jane's affections, and that in the battles to come no quarter could be asked or expected. 

So they stood at arm's length, facing one another and secretly forming an estimate each of the other's advantages and accomplishments. 

"She's pretty enough, but has no style whatever," was Louise's conclusion. "Neither has she tact nor self-possession, or even a prepossessing manner. She wears her new gown in a dowdy manner and one can read her face easily. There's little danger in this quarter, I'm sure, so I may as well be friends with the poor child." 

As for Beth, she saw at once that her "new cousin" was older and more experienced in the ways of the world, and therefore liable to prove a dangerous antagonist. Slender and graceful of form, attractive of feature and dainty in manner, Louise must be credited with many advantages; but against these might be weighed her evident insincerity--the volubility and gush that are so often affected to hide one's real nature, and which so shrewd and suspicious a woman as Aunt Jane could not fail to readily detect. Altogether, Beth was not greatly disturbed by her cousin's appearance, and suddenly realizing that they had been staring at one another rather rudely, she said, pleasantly enough: 
What did Beth think of Aunt Jane?
shrewd and suspicious