Woodbourne for her own sake, Lady Merton could not help missing
Katherine, her first play-fellow, the bright friend of her youth, her
sister-in-law; Mrs. Woodbourne, a shy timid person, many years
younger, felt that such must be the case, and always feared that she
was thinking that the girls would have been in better order under
their own mother; so that the two ladies were never quite at their
ease when alone together.

In the mean time, Elizabeth, quite unconscious that Dora was intended
to act as a clog round her neck, to keep her from straying too far,
was mounting the hill, the merriest of the merry party.

'It is certainly an advantage to the world in general to have the
church on a hill,' said Anne, 'both for the poetry and beauty of the
sight; but I should think that the world in particular would be glad
if the hill were not quite so steep.'

'Oh!' said Elizabeth, 'on the side towards the new town it is fair
and soft enough to suit the laziest, it is only on our side that it
resembles the mountain of fame or of happiness; and St. Austin's, as
the new town is now to be called, is all that has any concern with
it.'

'I wish it was not so steep on our side,' said Katherine; 'I do not
think I ever was so hot in all my life, as I was yesterday, when we
carried up all the cushions ourselves, and Papa sent me all the way
back to the Vicarage, only just to fetch a needle and thread for
Mamma to sew on a little bit of fringe.'

'Really, Kate,' said Elizabeth, 'you might have thought yourself very