is surprising to me that a woman who was never good-looking at the
best of times, should cling to her youth as you do."

"It is more surprising to me that you should let yourself go to rack
and ruin, and never stretch out a hand to help yourself."

"I am what God made me," said the pious Georgina, "whereas you do
everything but paint your face, Isabella; and I have little doubt but
what you will come to that by the time you are eighty."

But though they disputed hotly on occasion the sisters generally
preserved a united front before the world, and only argued, since
argue they must, in the most polite and affectionate terms.

The firelight shed its cheerful glow over the laden tea-table, and was
reflected in the silver urn, and the crimson and gold and blue of the
Crown Derby tea-set. But the old ladies, though casting longing eyes
in the direction of the teapot, religiously abstained from offering to
touch it.

"No, John," said Miss Crewys, in a tone of exemplary patience; "I
have made it a rule never to take upon myself any of the duties of
hospitality in my dear brother's house, ever since he married,--odd
as it may seem, when we remember how he used once to sit at this very
table in his little bib and tucker, whilst Isabella poured out his
milk, and I cut his bread and butter."

"We _both_ make the rule, John," said Lady Belstone, mournfully, "or,
of course, as the elder sister, _I_ should naturally pour out the tea
in our dear Lady Mary's absence."