it idle and see the child's petticoats drop to pieces?
I am a colonial girl--I don't know what people do in England. Where I
was brought up we were used to be busy about whatever lay nearest to our
hand."

"It isn't Freddy's frock," said Miss Wodehouse, with a little solemnity.
"You know very well what I mean. And suppose you were to marry--what
would happen supposing you were to marry, Nettie?"

"It is quite time enough to think of that when there is any likelihood
of it happening," said Nettie, with a little toss of her head. "It is
only idle people who have time to think of falling in love and such
nonsense. When one is very busy it never comes into one's head. Why,
you have never married, Miss Wodehouse; and when I know that I have
everything I possibly could desire, why should I?"

Miss Wodehouse bent her troubled sweet old face over the handle of her
parasol, and did not say anything for a few minutes. "It is all very
well as long as you are young," she said, with a wistful look; "and
somehow you young creatures are so much handier than we used to be. Our
little Lucy, you know, that I can remember quite a baby--I am twice as
old as she is," cried Miss Wodehouse, "and she is twice as much use in
the world as I. Well, it is all very strange. But, dear, you know,
_this_ isn't natural all the same."

"It is dreadful to say so--it is dreadful to think so!" cried Nettie.
"I know what you mean--not Freddy's frock, to be sure, but only one's
whole life and heart. Should one desert the only people belonging to one
in the world because one happens to have a little income and they have
none? If one's friends are not very sensible, is that a reason why one
should go and leave them? Is it right to make one's escape directly
whenever one feels one is wanted? or what do you mean, Miss Wodehouse?"
said the vehement girl. "That is what it comes to, you know. Do you
imagine I had any choice about coming over to England when Susan was
breaking her heart about her husband? could one let one's sister die,
do you suppose? And now that they are all together, what choice have I?
They can't do much for each other--there is actually nobody but me to
take care of them all. You may say it is not natural, or it is not
right, or anything you please, but what else can one do? That is the
practical question," said Nettie, triumphantly. "If you will answer
that, then I shall know what to say to you."

Miss Wodehouse gazed at her with a certa