uched and ashamed, but irritated also; grandmamma understood me
better than I understood myself.

'We are going out now,' she said, 'put on your things as quickly as you
can. I have several shops to go to, and the afternoons close in very
early in London just now.'

That walk with grandmamma--at least it was only partly a walk, for she
took a hansom to the first shop she had to go to,--and I had never been
in a hansom before, so you can fancy how I enjoyed it--yes, that first
afternoon in London stands out very happily. Once I had grandmamma quite
to myself everything seemed to come right, and I could almost have
skipped along the street in my pleasure and excitement. The shops were
already beginning to look gay in anticipation of Christmas, to
me--country child that I was, they were bewilderingly magnificent.
Grandmamma was careful not to let me get too tired, we drove home again
in another hansom, carrying some of our purchases with us. These were
mostly things for the house, and a few for ourselves, and shopping was
so new to me, that I took the greatest interest even in ordering brushes
for the housemaid, or choosing a new afternoon tea-service for Cousin
Agnes.

That evening, too, passed much better than the morning. Grandmamma spoke
to me about how things were likely to be and what I myself should try to
do.

'I cannot fix anything about lessons for you,' she said, 'till after
Cosmo and Agnes return, for I do not know how much time I shall have
free for you. But you are well on for your age, and I don't think a few
weeks without regular lessons will do you any harm, especially here in
London, where there is so much new and interesting. But I think you had
better make a plan for yourself--I will help you with it--for doing
something every morning while I am busy.'

'But I may be with you in the afternoons, mayn't I?' I said.

'Of course, at least generally,' said grandmamma, 'whenever the weather
is fine enough I will take you out. It would never do to shut you up
when you have been so accustomed to the open air. Some days, perhaps, we
may go out in the mornings. All I want you to understand now, is that
plans cannot possibly be settled all at once. You must be patient and
cheerful, and if there are things that you don't like just now, in a
little while they will probably disappear.'

I felt pleased at grandmamma talking to me more in her old consulting
way, and for the time it seemed as if I could do as sh