you do not belong to them any more and are part and parcel of quite
another family? Will they like it, that your business will be to forget
them now? See if they like it!"

"Why I shall not forget them at all!" cried Matilda; "how could I? and
what makes you say so?"

"You are beginning by forgetting your mother," said Mrs. Candy, with a
significant glance at the silver-grey pelisse.

"Yes," said Clarissa, "I noticed the minute she came in. How could Mrs.
Laval do so!"

"What?" said Matilda. "That isn't true at all, aunt Candy."

"I see the signs," said Mrs. Candy. "There is no need to tell me what
they mean. In this country it is considered a mark of respect and a
sign that we do not forget our friends, to wear a dress of remembrance."

"It reminds us of them, too," said Clarissa. "And we like to be
reminded of those we love."

"I do not want anything to remind me of _her_," said Matilda; and the
little set of her head at the moment spoke volumes. "And besides, aunt
Candy and Clarissa, I did not wear mourning when I was here, except
only when I went to church."

"That shewed the respect," said Mrs. Candy. "You can see easily what
Mrs. Laval means, by her dressing you out in that style. Have you got a
black dress under your coat?"

"Let us see what you have got," said Clarissa.

As Matilda did not move, Mrs. Candy rose and went to her and lifted up
the folds of her pelisse so as to show the brown merino.

"I thought so," she remarked, as she went back to her seat.

"Mrs. Laval ought to be ashamed!" said her daughter.

Matilda had got by this time about as much as she could bear. She rose
up from her uneasy chair opposite Mrs. Candy.

"O, are you going?" said that lady. "You do not care to stay long with
us."

"Not to-day," said little Matilda, with more dignity than she knew, and
with an air of the head and shoulders that very much irritated Mrs.
Candy.

"I'd cure you of _that_," she said, "if I had you. I thought I had
cured you. You would not dare hold your head like that, if you were
living with me."

Now Matilda had not the least knowledge that her head was held
differently from usual. She said good bye.

"Are you not going to kiss me?" said her aunt. "You are forgetting
fast."

It cost an effort, but Matilda offered her cheek to Mrs. Candy and to
Clarissa, and left them. She ran down the stairs and out of the house.
At the little gate she stood still.

What did it all mean? Forgetting her