them," said Miss Benson,
quietly. "No! but you see, Sally, it's very awkward having such grey
hair, and feeling so young. Do you know, Sally, I've as great a mind
for dancing, when I hear a lively tune on the street-organs, as ever;
and as great a mind to sing when I'm happy--to sing in my old way,
Sally, you know."

"Aye, you had it from a girl," said Sally; "and many a time, when the
door's been shut, I did not know if it was you in the parlour, or a
big bumble-bee in the kitchen, as was making that drumbling noise. I
heard you at it yesterday."

"But an old woman with grey hair ought not to have a fancy for
dancing or singing," continued Miss Benson.

"Whatten nonsense are ye talking?" said Sally, roused to indignation.
"Calling yoursel' an old woman when you're better than ten years
younger than me! and many a girl has grey hair at five-and-twenty."

"But I'm more than five-and-twenty, Sally. I'm fifty-seven next May!"

"More shame for ye, then, not to know better than to talk of dyeing
your hair. I cannot abide such vanities!"

"Oh, dear! Sally, when will you understand what I mean? I want to
know how I am to keep remembering how old I am, so as to prevent
myself from feeling so young? I was quite startled just now to see my
hair in the glass, for I can generally tell if my cap is straight by
feeling. I'll tell you what I'll do--I'll cut off a piece of my grey
hair, and plait it together for a marker in my Bible!" Miss Benson
expected applause for this bright idea, but Sally only made answer:

"You'll be taking to painting your cheeks next, now you've once
thought of dyeing your hair." So Miss Benson plaited her grey hair in
silence and quietness, Leonard holding one end of it while she wove
it, and admiring the colour and texture all the time, with a sort of
implied dissatisfaction at the auburn colour of his own curls, which
was only half-comforted away by Miss Benson's information, that, if
he lived long enough, his hair would be like hers.

Mr Benson, who had looked old and frail while he was yet but young,
was now stationary as to the date of his appearance. But there was
something more of nervous restlessness in his voice and ways than
formerly; that was the only change six years had brought to him.
And as for Sally, she chose to forget age and the passage of years
altogether, and had as much work in her, to use her own expression,
as she had at sixteen; nor was her appearance very explicit as to th