Countess Kate

enic day!-I'll go to sleep again,

to call sweet-briar eglantine.-Sylvia! Sylvia! that thorn has got hold of me; and there's Aunt Barbara coming down the lane in the baker's jiggeting cart.-Oh dear! was i

soul, and w

stage of

a day, and a countess only-only five-how many has the Queen? No-but how much higher is a queen than a countess? If I were Queen, I would put an end to aunts and to calisthenic exercises; and I would send for all my orphan nobility, and let them choose their own governesses and playfellows, and always liv

ross, and that it was a hard lot to live in subjection to her. But there are two sides to a qu

sister could not do; and neither of them ever wanted any amusement beyond quiet play with their dolls and puzzles, contrivances in pretty fancy works, and walks with their governess in trim gravel paths. They had two elder brothers and one young

me, and full of life and spirit, but fonder of her sister than ever, and always coming ho

marrying at such a time, and said she must attend to no one else. All that winter and spring she was nursing her sister day and night, watching over her, and quite keeping up the little spark of life, the doctors said, by her tender care. And th

unhappy life. He caused the engagement to be broken off. She knew it was right, and made no complaint to anybody; but she always believed that it was her brother James who had been the tempter, who had led his friend astray; and from that time, though she was more dev

kind to him, and not have inflamed Lord Caergwent's displeasure when he married imprudently. Her sister Jane had never known all that had passed: she had been too ill to hear of it at the time; and it was not Lady Barbara's way to talk to other people of her own troubles. But Jane was always led by her sister, and never thought of people, or judged events, otherwise than as Barbara told her; so that, kind and gentle as she was by nature, she was like a double of her sister, instead of by her mildness telling on the

year by the sea, and one at Caergwent Castle with their eldest brother. They always had a spare room for any old friend who wanted to come up to town; and they did many acts of kindness, and gave a great deal to be spent on the poor of their parish. They di

the great grief came of losing their eldest brother; and not long after him, his son, the nep

ildren; and it upset all their ways very much to have to make room for a little girl, her maid, and her governess; but still, if she had been such a little girl

e bright and fairy-like if unconstrained, always grew abrupt and uncouth when under restraint-a child very far from silly, but apt to say the silliest things-learning quickly all that was mere head-work, but hopelessly or obstinately dull at what was to be done by the fingers-a child whose ways could not be called vulgar, but would have been completely tom-boyish, except for a ce

are of her, Lady Barbara would have thought it a duty to provide for her: but knowing her to be in good hands, it had not then seemed needful to inflict the child on her sister, or to conquer her own distaste to

ender compassion for the brother's orphan grandchild. So somewhat of the pomps of this world may have come in to blind her eyes; but whatever she did was because she thought it right to do, and when Kate thought of her as cross, it was a great mistake. Lady Barbara had great control of temper,

unt Barbara went out to spend the evening with some friends; and she

holiday, and it must be confessed, rather to

about yourself when y

o. Time passes very quickly. To think of such a

a much older tha

years olde

me how you pla

ear; I played with

d! One can't do th

ways spoil girls' pla

is rough-I mean, not rough exactly; but it's no

shocked, "I can't bear to hear yo

Jolly' twenty times a day at

see you play

is a great deal less riotous than I am, especially since he went to school; and Armyn is too big to be riotous. Oh dear, I wish Mr. Bro

oft, distressed voice, "indeed that is n

a man. He is a clerk, you know, and

cle

e, you know. Aunt Jane, di

drank tea with our little fr

to get it, till once, without meaning it, I squirted right through the drawing-room window, and made such a puddle; and Mrs. Brown thought it was Charlie, only I ran in and told of myself, and Mrs. Br

harine had been in very odd company, and done very strange things with those boys, and

aurel tree, and Armyn put Sylvia and me up into the fork; and that was our nest, and we were birds, and he fed us with strawberries; and we pretended to be learning to fly, and stood up flapping our frocks and squeaking, and Charlie came under and danced the branches about. We didn't like that; and Armyn said it was a shame, and hunted him away, racing all round the garden; and

y dear!" said Lad

sea; and it was nice and shallow, with dear little caddises and river cray-fish, and great British pearl-shells at the bottom. So we took off our shoes and stockings, and Charlie an

Did your cous

en they heard in the drawing-room what we had been doing, they made Mary sing 'Auld Lang Syne,' because of 'We t

e paidlit

ing sun t

ered many

ld lan

le to sing it, and that

midst of numbers, in the splendid drawing-rooms, hearing the sweet voice of the lovely y

nd that Barbara really must not be too severe on her, after she had lived with such odd people, and that it w

oom at luncheon time one wet afternoon, she heard steps on the stairs behind her aunt's, a

y Barbara. "Katharine, come a

hould be scolded for her awkward greeting: so she put out her hand as if she had no use of

olish little fingers; and he quite gave them to his son, whose shake was a real treat; the contact wi

as her uncle, the Colonel in India; and she first gathered from what was passing that her uncle's eldest and only surviving son, an officer in his own regiment, had never recovered a wound he had received at the relief of Lucknow, and that if he did not get better at Simlah, where his mother had just taken him, his father thought of retiring a

and she was opening her ears most eagerly, and turning her quick bright eyes from one speaker to the othe

s a little baby w

etter, but always, and very unnecessarily, as an interjection; and

es or poor Frank before

dear

onfusion that made her always do

rom her own relations," said Lady Barbara,

te well," said Lord de la

then with brightening eyes, sh

ed with increased kindness of manner. "Wi

tly; "but he says all those

that hindered a public scolding; but Lord de la Poer only laughed heart

m her school-fellows, all filled with dearest loves, and we always lau

owever, Kate understood as fun, "that I did not presume to sen

I don't know that your remembrance

ss they are of use?" This was a puzzling qu

or plea

t see what would

it pleasurable to be

cle Wardour," cried Kate, with eag

brought up by him. But come, Lady Caergwent, since you are so critical, will you be pleased to devise some message for me, that may combine use, pleas

tion, began to speak of other things; but in the midst the shrill little voice broke in, "I k

we have not got half room enough, and can't make more, though we have three services; and we want to build a new aisle, and it will cost ￡250, but we have only g

talking of. Pray excuse her-" he took out his purse, and from it came a crackling smooth five-pound note, which he put into the hand, saying, "There, m

the whole world she could not have said more: but though she knew perfectly well tha

was a sure sign of warning and displeasure, "You had better come up stairs with us, Katha

te into her pocket, bounded up-stairs, and opened the back drawing-roo

that parted off the second room. There was a great silence at first, then began a little tittering, then a little chattering, t

l never thrive unless you let her use her voice and limbs. I shall make

were some sounds of rushing about, some small shrieks,

their house, Ernest would teach her to ride. And then they began to consider what play was possible under the present circumstances-beginning they hardly knew how, by dodging one another round and round the table, making snatches at one another, gradually assuming the characters of hunter and Red Indian. Only when the hunter had snatched up Aunt Jane's tortoise-shell paper-cutter to stab with, complaining d

ried Kate, swinging between the rails of the landi

don't you see

Duke-or anything big and horrid, like Achilles in the Park, holding up a shield l

n't a s

what is the word-Hermione. No; I m

have you seen the

, that is-read it t

red and I went to it las

e I have always so wanted to get up and be Hermione, and descend to the sound of s

be the lion and bear

e courtier; only I must get

ere's B

tair-carpet the sea, because then the au

the drawing-room, produced no immediate results. But in the very midst of Lady Jane's signing her name to some paper, she gave a violent start, an

felt not only giddy in her elevation, but found her pedestal loosening! There was no room to jump; and Ernest, perhaps enjoying what he regarded as a girl's foolish fright, was a good way off, endeavouring to wind up the musical-box, when the bracket gave way, and He

her over and see whether she were hurt, or what was the matter, while she stood half sobbin

gasped Kate; "I

epeated Ernest; "it is all

keep his gravity, though he was somewhat vexed at the turn affairs had taken. He was not entirely devoid

done. You had better defer your statueship till w

she in his ear, turning redder

don, I suppose; I should not wonder if the catastrophe had damaged

ot be frightened without suffering for it, and was lying back on the sofa, almost faint with palpitation, when Lord de la Poer, with Kate's hand in his

disposition, that she was somewhat softened; and then he began asking pardon, blending himself with the

not reserve her displeasure for his departure, and he would not go away till he had absolutely made her promise

e and the impropriety of climbing; nor even on what had greatly annoyed her, the asking for the subscription to the church. There was neither blame nor punishment; but she could not help

ld appear to advantage before him. Nothing, she was sure, but Katharine's innate naughtiness could have made that well-behaved little Ernest break out into rudeness; and though his father

y happy, or suited to her aunt; but that she would have been infinitely happier an