The end of it all was, however, that, upon reflection, Mrs. Rushton
found she did not care so much after all about the destruction of her
watch, and that the whole occurrence would make a capital story to tell
to her friends; and so she sent for Hetty, who was then making a dismal
play for herself in the twilight with two chairs turned upside down and
a pinafore hung from one to another for a curtain. The child was seized
by Grant, the maid, dressed in one of her prettiest costumes, and taken
down to the drawing-room to Mrs. Rushton, who had quite recovered her
temper and forgotten both the beating she had given Hetty and the
beating Hetty had given her. The culprit was overwhelmed with kisses,
and praises of her pretty eyes; and soon found herself the centre of a
brilliant little crowd who were listening with smiles to the story of
Hetty's ill-treatment of the watch.

Each year Mrs. Rushton went abroad for amusement and Hetty was taken
with her, and in foreign hotels was even more shown about, flattered and
snubbed, petted and neglected, than she had been when at home in London.
Everything that could be done was done to make her vain, wilful,
ill-tempered; and the little creature came to know that she might have
anything she pleased if only she could make Mrs. Rushton laugh.

Four or five years passed in this way, during which time Mrs. Rushton
had very little intercourse with her brother's family at Wavertree. Her
country house had been shut up and her time had been spent between
London, Brighton, and fashionable resorts on the Continent. In the
meantime the education which she had promised Mrs. Kane should be given
to her nursling had not been even begun. Mrs. Rushton had had no leisure
to think of it. She looked upon Hetty as still only a babe, a marmoset
born to amuse her own hours of ennui. In her brother's occasional
letters he sometimes devoted a line to Hetty. "I hope you are not