Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. A MORNING AT HOME. A DAY or two later Mrs. Oliver and her daughters were sitting by the morning-room fire. May was writing letters at a small table pulled close to her; her sister was cutting the leaves of a book and gazing meditatively in the clear fire, so welcome this brisk autumn morning. The mother was going through a heap of things to be mended in a basket beside her, and there was a desultory talk going on, in which the letter-writer joined from time to time. They were waiting for Mr. Oliver to come in before going to lunch. " Mother, dear," said Jessie, in the coaxing way that was habitual to her, " I want that dear little Nora Halloran to come over here to lunch one day. You'd like her, mother, dear. It's a treat to look at her." " Indeed, Jessie," said her mother, " is that why you want her to come?" " No, you absurd darling! But I should like her to come here because I am so fond of her." " Is it a genuine friendship ? " " Oh, yes, darling! You know I don't take capricious fancies." " Well, then, she must come: said Mrs. Oliver, placidly smiling. " I am prepared to find her very nice indeed, since my girls like her." " I'm not so enthusiastic as Jessie," May said, a little drily. " May thinks Nora wears her frocks much too gay for Coolevara, and that she oughtn't to crust her little brown paws with diamonds by daylight. Now, I think anything that adds to the gaiety of life in Coolevara is desirable." " Nora's Liberty frocks certainly do that," said May. " I don't deny that they become her, but quieter things would be more in place, and would enhance her beauty, I think." " We must give her a hint," said Jessie good- temperedly. " Shall I ask her on Saturday, dear?" " Yes; Saturday will do very nicely," assented Mrs. Oli...