the brightly burning lamp, she drew the letter from her pocket and
read it aloud, while Alice drummed an occasional note upon the
piano and Eugenia beat a tattoo upon the carpet with her delicate
French slipper.

"Of course she won't come," said Alice, as her mother finished
reading. "It was preposterous in Aunt Fanny to propose such a
thing!" and she glanced towards Eugenia for approbation of what
she had said.

Eugenia's quick, active mind had already looked at the subject in
all its bearings, and in like manner with her mother she saw how
Dora's presence there would be a benefit; so to Alice's remark she
replied: "It will sound well for us to have a _cousin_ in the
_poorhouse_, won't it? For my part, I propose that she comes,
and then be made to earn her own living. We can dismiss Bridget,
who is only two years older than Dora, and we shall thus avoid
quarreling regularly with her vixenish mother, besides saving a
dollar every week--"

"So make a _drudge_ of Dora," interrupted Alice. "Better
leave her in the poorhouse at once."

"Nobody intends to make a _drudge_ of her," retorted Eugenia.
"Mother works in the kitchen, and I wonder if it will hurt Dora to
help her. Every girl ought to learn to work!"

"Except Eugenia Deane," suggested Alice, laughing, to think how
little her sister's practise accorded with her theory.