At first the young folks lived with her father, but he soon died,
leaving his daughter a little property settled on herself. But it was
not enough to support them, and so Master Harry had to apply to old Mr.
Benjamin Elwyn again, and the old man gave him this place, and enough to
live on pretty comfortably here. He told Master Harry that perhaps
something might be made of his baby wife yet, if he brought her away
from the follies of the city, to a country place like this, and tried to
improve her mind; and so they have lived here ever since, till last
year, when poor master Harry died."

"And what do ye think is the raison that the misthress thrates little
Miss Agnes the way she does?"

"Well, I can hardly tell you, Bridget. In the first place, I have often
heard her say that she couldn't abide _girls_, and bating other reasons,
I think she would have been disappointed on her own account, you know,
to have the first child a girl. But, besides this, I have heard that Mr.
Benjamin Elwyn quite forgave Mr. Harry, and promised him that if his
oldest child was a boy, and he named it after him, he would leave him
the bulk of his property. I cannot tell you how bitterly disappointed
my young mistress was, when her first born proved to be a girl. She was
but sixteen years old then, you know, Bridget, and she acted like a
cross, spoiled baby. She cried herself into a fever, and she wouldn't
let the poor, helpless baby, come into her sight. I think she never
loved her; and from the time of Master Lewie's birth, she has seemed to
dislike her more and more."

"But how the father loved her, Mrs. McCrae!"

"Aye, indeed he did; he never could be easy a minute without her. It was