One was a rather elderly, rather plain, rather pious lady, who did not insist on her pretensions to either of the epithets.

The second was a short, plump, round-faced, good-natured, smiling woman of sixty,--excelling in fasts and mortifications, which somehow seemed to agree with her body as well as her soul.

The third was only two or three years older than Dorothy, and was pretty, except when she began to speak, and then for a moment there was a strange discord in her features.

She took a dislike to Dorothy, as she said herself, the instant she cast her eyes upon her.

She could not bear that prim, set face, she said.