to you? You are as
dull as a Dutch doll, sitting there and saying nothing. I would
that Frederick were at home! He can speak when he is spoken to; but
you are like a deaf mute!"

"I beg your pardon, ma'am. I was reading--I did not hear."

"That is always the way--reading, reading, reading! Why, what good
do you think reading will do you? Why don't you get your silk
embroidery or practise upon the spinnet? Such advantages as you
have! And all thrown away on a girl who does not know when she is
well off. I have no manner of patience with you, Gertrude. If I had
had such opportunities in my girlhood, I should never have been a
mere citizen's wife now."

A slightly mutinous look passed across Gertrude's face. Submissive
in word and manner, as was the rule of the day, she was by no means
submissive in mind, and had her mother's ears been sharper she
might have detected the undertone of irony in the reply she
received.

"I think nobody would take you for a citizen's wife, ma'am. As for
me, I am not made to shine in a higher sphere than mine own. I have
not even the patience to learn the spinnet. I would sooner be
baking pies with Rebecca next door, as we used to do when we were
children, before father grew so rich."

Madam's face clouded ominously. She heartily wished she had never
admitted her children to intimacy with the Harmers next door. It
had done no harm in the case of Frederick. He was his mother's son,
every inch of him, and was as ready to turn up a supercilious nose
at his old comrades as ever Madam could wish.

But Gertrude was different--she was excessively provoking at times.
She did not seem able to understand that if one intended to rise in
the world, one must cut through a number of old ties, and start
upon a fresh track. It was not easy in those times to rise; but
still the wealthier citizens did occasionally make a position for
themselves, and get amongst the hangers-on of the Court party,
especially if they were open handed with their money.

Madam often declared that if they only moved into another part of
the town, everything she wanted could be attained; but on that
point her husband was inexorable. He loved the old bridge house.
There he had been born, and there he meant to die, and he had not
the smnallest intention of removing elsewhere to please even the
wife to whom he granted so many indulgences.

"You are a fool!" cried Madam, angrily; "you say those things only
to provoke me. I wis