"Oh!" cried Julia, "it is all the fault of Mrs. Welton;
they quarrelled about something, I don't know
what, but Anna assures me Mrs. Welton is entirely
in fault."

"Indeed!--and you are perfectly sure that Mrs.
Welton is in fault--perhaps Anna has, however, laid
too strong a stress upon the error of her sister,"
observed the aunt.

"Oh! not at all, dear aunt. I can assure you, on my
own knowledge," continued Julia, "Anna was
anxious for a reconciliation, and offered to come
and spend the winter with her sister, but Mrs.
Welton declared positively that she would not have
so selfish a creature round her children: now this
Anna told me herself one day, and wept nearly to
break her heart at the time."

"Perhaps Mrs. Welton was right then," said Miss
Emmerson, "and prudence, if not some other
reason, justified her refusal."

"How can you say so, dear aunt?" interrupted Julia,
with a little impatience, "when I tell you that Anna
herself--my Anna, told me with her own lips, here in
this very house, that Mrs. Welton was entirely to
blame, and that she had never done any thing in
her life to justify the treatment or the remark--now