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CHAPTER XIV.

NOVELS AND REAL LIFE.

Mrs. Troubridge was very much disposed to cultivate the acquaintance of the interesting orphan whom Mr. Lufton had introduced to her; and although the party from Branxholm had not taken Richlands on their homeward route, as she hoped and expected, she overlooked the slight, and called at Branxholm on her next visit to Adelaide, and accepted of Mrs. Lindsay's hospitality for the night.

She was not so much afraid of compromising herself by visiting her inferiors as Mrs. Hammond had been, and she always enjoyed being in any one's house. Different walls, and floors, and plates, and teacups, from those at Richlands had always an exhilarating effect on Mrs. Troubridge's' spirits, and she found that, independent of Amy Staunton, the Lindsays were worth visiting on their own account. She had a frank, rattling