to have seen that Emma was where she would be pleasantly entertained;
but I will make amends for this when we get to the plain--I will
introduce her, and leave her with them."

Emma, however, seemed well satisfied with her company. "I have long
wanted to speak with you," said she.

"That is very polite," thought Mary; "I suppose it is what well-bred
people generally say. I have _really_ wanted to hear her speak, though
I won't say so, for she will think that I am only trying to be polite."

Emma took off her sun-bonnet when riding through the woods, and told
Mary how happy it made her to hear the birds sing, and to breathe the
sweet fragrance which came from the hay-meadows; but Mary felt
diffident, and did not reply warmly, as she felt. She called Emma Miss
Lindsay; so Emma felt obliged to call her Miss Palmer, though she
longed to put her arms around her, as they sat upon the box, and call
her _Mary_.

All this time the company in the rear were talking in this way:--

"I suppose," said Fanny Brighton, "that this little chicky-dandy thinks
she has done us a great favor, by condescending to ride in a wagon, and
upon a box. If she shows off any of her aristocratic airs to me, I will
soon make her understand that her room is better than her company."

"What a milk-and-water looking thing she is," said Alice More; "they
had better have kept their cosset at home; she will be calling, 'ma!
ma!' before night."