n!" she cried. "May I not take you
all for sisters?"

Ethel had not thought of this as a convenience of the connection, and
she let Meta kiss her, and owned that it was very nice.

"Ethel," said Meta, "I see, and I wanted to talk to you. You don't think
poor George good enough for Flora."

"I never meant to show it," said Ethel.

"You need not mind," said Meta, smiling. "I was very much surprised
myself, and thought it all a mistake. But I am so very glad, for I know
it will make such a difference to him, poor fellow. I should like to
tell you all about him, for no one else can very well, and you will like
him better, perhaps. You know my grandfather made his own fortune, and
you would think some of our relations very queer. My Aunt Dorothy once
told me all about it--papa was made to marry the partner's daughter, and
I fancy she could not have been much of a lady. I don't think he could
have been very happy with her, but she soon died, and left him with this
one son, whom those odd old aunts brought up their own way. By and by,
you know, papa came to be in quite another line of society, but when he
married again, poor George had been so spoiled by these aunts, and was
so big, and old, that my mother did not know what to make of him."

"A great lubberly boy," Ethel said, rather repenting the next moment.

"He is thirteen years older than I am," said Meta, "and you see it has
been hard on him altogether; he had not the education that papa would
have given him if he had been born later: and he can't remember his
mother, and has always been at a loss when with clever people. I never
understood it till within the last two or three years, nor knew
how trying it must be to see such a little chit as me made so much
of--almost thrusting him aside. But you cannot think what a warm-hearted
good fellow he is--he has never been otherwise than so very kind to
me, and he was so very fond of his old aunt. Hitherto, he has had such
disadvantages, and no real, sensible woman has taken him in hand; he
does not care for papa's tastes, and I am so much younger, that I never
could get on with him at all, till this time; but I do know that he has
a real good temper, and all sorts of good qualities, and that he only
needs to be led right, to go right. Oh! Flora may make anything of him,
and we are so thankful to her for having found it out!"

"Thank you for telling me," said Ethel. "It is much more satisfactory to
have no shamming."