saw?" she managed by her shy self- confidence to suggest that she
was pretty, that Aunt Amy was a fool, and life was altogether very
agreeable, but that none of these things was of any great
importance. She was very good friends with Jeremy, but she played no
part in his life at all. At the same time she often fought with him,
simply from her real deep consciousness of her superiority to him.
She valued her authority and asserted it incessantly. That authority
had until last year been unchallenged, but Jeremy now was growing.
She had, although she did not as yet realise it, a difficult time
before her.

Helen and Mary advanced with their presents, laid them on the
breakfast-table, and then retreated to watch the effect of it all.

"Shall I now?" asked Jeremy.

"Yes, now," said Helen and Mary.

There were three parcels, one large and "shoppy," two small and
bound with family paper, tied by family hands with family string. He
grasped immediately the situation. The shoppy parcel was bought with
mother's money and only "pretended" to be from his sisters; the two
small parcels were the very handiwork of the ladies themselves, the
same having been seen by all eyes at work for the last six months,
sometimes, indeed, under the cloak of attempted secrecy, but more
often--because weariness or ill-temper made them careless--in the
full light of day.

His interest was centred almost entirely in the "shoppy" parcel,
which by its shape might be "soldiers"; but he knew the rules of the