"You mean me to take that for a compliment. I know I'm quite pretty, but
I'm nothing to Saidee. She was a great beauty, though with the same
colouring I have, except that her eyes were brown, and her hair a little
more auburn. People turned to look after her in the street, and that
made our stepmother angry. _She_ wanted to be the one looked at. I knew,
even then! She wouldn't have travelled with us, only father had left her
his money, on condition that she gave Saidee and me the best of
educations, and allowed us a thousand dollars a year each, from the time
our schooling was finished until we married. She had a good deal of
influence over him, for he was ill a long time, and she was his
nurse--that was the way they got acquainted. And she persuaded him to
leave practically everything to her; but she couldn't prevent his making
some conditions. There was one which she hated. She was obliged to live
in the same town with us; so when she wanted to go and enjoy herself in
Paris after father died, she had to take us too. And she didn't care to
shut Saidee up, because if Saidee couldn't be seen, she couldn't be
married; and of course Mrs. Ray wanted her to be married. Then she would
have no bother, and no money to pay. I often heard Saidee say these
things, because she told me everything. She loved me a great deal, and I
adored her. My middle name is Cecilia, and she was generally called Say;
so she used to tell me that our secret names for each other must be 'Say
and Seal.
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