ent, to catch all this rain, which was very nearly
enough to drown anybody; and he went to bring him in. But Sydney was
not to be caught. He was on the watch; and the moment he saw Mr Hope's
coat instead of his sisters' cloaks, he ran off with a speed which
defied pursuit, and was soon out of sight with the large umbrella.

His cousins were sorry that he felt the event so painfully, and that he
could not come in and confide his trouble of mind to them. Hope
resolved not to let the morning pass without seeing him, and, if
possible, bringing him home to dinner, with William Levitt to take off
the awkwardness.

"What are we to do?" exclaimed Sydney's little sisters. "He has carried
off the great umbrella."

"I cannot conveniently send you, just at present," said Hester; "so you
had better put off your cloaks, and amuse yourselves here till the rain
abates, or some one comes for you. We will speak to Miss Young to
excuse your not being with her."

"Oh, cousin Margaret," said the children, "if you will speak to Miss
Young, she will give us any sort of a holiday. She minds everything you
say. She will let us stop all day, and dine here, if you ask her."

Hester said she could not have them stay all day,--she did not mean to
have them to dinner: and the little girls both looked up in her face at
once, to find out what made her speak so angrily. They saw cousin
Margaret glancing the same way too.

"Do you know, Mary," said Fanny, "you have not said a word yet of what
Miss Young bade you say?"

Mary told cousin Margaret, that Miss Young was wishing very much to see
her, and would be pleased if Margaret would mention what evening she
would spend with her,--a nice long evening, Mary added, to begin as soon
as it grew dark, and on till--nobody knew when.

"Maria had better come here," observed Hester, quickly; "and then some
one else besides Margaret may have the benefit of her conversation. She
seems to forget that anybody cares for her besides Margaret. Tell Miss
Young she had better fix an evening to come here."

"I do not think she will do that," said both the little girls.

"Why not?"

"She is very lame now," replied Mary, "and she cannot walk further than
just to school and back again."

"And, besides," remarked Fanny, "she wants to talk with cousin Margaret
alone, I am sure. They have such a great deal of talk to do whenever
they are together! We watch them sometimes in the schoolroom, through
the