expected to see you here."

"My aunt thought of it," said Fanny, "and as she seems to find the
children too much--"

She broke off, for Mrs. Curtis had paused to let her introduce the
subject, but poor Fanny had never taken the initiative, and Rachel
did it for her by explaining that all had come on the same errand, to
ask if Miss Williams would undertake the lessons of her nephews; Lady
Temple softly murmured under her veil something about hopes and too
much trouble; an appointment was made for the following morning, and
Mrs. Curtis, with a general sensation of an oppressive multitude in a
small room, took her leave, and the company departed, Fanny, all the
way home, hoping that the other Miss Williams would be like her
sister, pitying the cripple, wishing that the sisters were in the
remotest degree military, so as to obtain the respect of the hoys,
and wondering what would be the Major's opinion.

"So many ladies!" exclaimed little Rose. "Aunt Ermine, have they
made your head ache?"

"No, my dear, thank you, I am only tired. If you will pull out the
rest for my feet, I will be quiet a little, and be ready for tea when
Aunt Ailie comes."

The child handily converted the chair into a couch, arranging the
dress and coverings with the familiarity of long use, and by no means
shocked by the contraction and helplessness of the lower limbs, to
which she had been so much accustomed all her life that it never even
occurred to her to pity Aunt Ermine, who never treated herself as an