to her about, and yet never could. For it was not her own affair; it
seemed like presumptuously middling in the affairs of the family.
Above all, it involved the necessity of something which looked like
tale-bearing and backbiting of a person she disliked, and there was
in Elizabeth--servant as she was--an instinctive chivalrous honor
which made her especially anxious to be just to her enemies.

Enemy, however, is a large word to use; and yet day by day her
feelings grew more bitter toward the person concerned--namely. Mr.
Ascott Leaf. It was not from any badness in him: he was the sort of
young man always likely to be a favorite with what would be termed
his "inferiors;" easy, good-tempered, and gentlemanly, giving a good
deal of trouble certainly, but giving it so agreeably that few
servants would have grumbled, and paying for it--as he apparently
thought every thing could be paid for--with a pleasant word and a
handful of silver.

But Elizabeth's distaste for him had deeper roots. The principal one
was his exceeding indifference to his aunts' affairs, great and
small, from the marriage, which he briefly designated as a "jolly
lark," to the sharp economies which, even with the addition of Miss
Hilary's salary, were still requisite.--None of these latter did he
ever seem to notice, except when they pressed upon himself; when he
neither scolded nor argued, but simply went out and avoided them.

He was now absent from home more than ever, and apparently tried as
much as possible to keep the household in the dark as to his
movements--leaving at uncertain times, never saying what hour he
would be back, or if he said so, never keeping to his word. This was
the more annoying as there were a number of people continually