said Madam Liberality.

* * * * *

It is not necessary to say much more. The Major had been killed by a
fall from horseback, and Darling came back to live at her old home.
She had a little pension, and the sisters were not parted again.

It would be idle to dwell on Madam Liberality's devotion to her
nephew, or the princely manner in which he accepted her services. That
his pleasure was the object of a new series of plans, and presents,
and surprises, will be readily understood. The curtains were bought,
but the new carpet had to be deferred in consequence of an extravagant
outlay on mechanical toys. When the working of these brought a deeper
tint into his cheeks, and a brighter light into his eyes, Madam
Liberality was quite happy; and when he broke them one after another,
his infatuated aunt believed this to be a precocious development of
manly energies.

The longest lived, if not the favourite, toys with him were the old
set of scallop-shells, with which he never wearied of making feasts,
to which Madam Liberality was never weary of being invited. He had
more plums than had ever sweetened her childhood, and when they sat
together on two footstools by the sofa, and Tom announced the contents
of the dishes in his shrillest voice and lifted the covers, Madam
Liberality would say in a tone of apology,

"It's very odd, Darling, and I'm sure at my time of life it's
disgraceful, but I cannot feel old!"

We could hardly take leave of Madam Liberality in pleasanter
circumstances. Why should we ask whether, for the rest of her life,
she was rich or poor, when we may feel so certain that she was
contented? No doubt she had many another hope and disappointment to
keep life from stagnating.

As a matter of fact she outlived the bachelor cousin, and if he died
intestate she must have been rich after all. Perhaps she was. Perhaps
she never suffered again from insufficient food or warmth. Perhaps the
illnesses of her later years were alleviated by skill and comforts
such as hitherto she had never known. Perhaps Darling and she enjoyed
a sort of second spring in their old age, and went every year to the
Continent, and grew wonderful flowers in the greenhouse, and sent Tom
to Eton, and provided for their nephews and nieces, and built churches
to their mother's memory, and never had to withhold the liberal hand
from helping because it was empty; and so passed by a time of wealth
to the hour of de