Ethel put almost too forward--they
all helped at Cocksmoor, and Ethel was very queer and unformed, and
could do nothing by herself. The only thing Flora did keep in her mind
was, that her papa had spoken to her, as if she were a woman compared
with Ethel.

Little Blanche made her report of the conversation to Mary, "that it was
so nice; and now she did not care about Miss Rivers's fine presents at
all, for papa said what one made oneself was better to give than what
one bought. And papa said, too, that it was a good thing not to be rich,
for then one never felt the miss of what one gave away."

Margaret, who overheard the exposition, thought it so much to Blanche's
credit, that she could not help repeating it in the evening, after the
little girl was gone to bed, when Mr. Wilmot had come in to arrange
the programme for Cocksmoor. So the little fit of discontent and its
occasion, the meeting with Meta Rivers, were discussed.

"Yes," said Mr. Wilmot, "those Riverses are open-handed. They really
seem to have so much money, that they don't know what to do with it. My
brother is ready to complain that they spoil his parish. It is all meant
so well, and they are so kind-hearted and excellent, that it is a shame
to find fault, and I tell Charles and his wife that their grumbling at
such a squire proves them the most spoiled of all."

"Indiscriminate liberality?" asked the doctor. "I should guess the old
gentleman to be rather soft!"

"That's one thing. The parish is so small, and there are so few to
shower all this bounty on, and they are so utterly unused to country
people. They seem to think by laying out money they can get a show set
of peasants in rustic cottages, just as they have their fancy cows and
poultry--all that offends the eye out of the way."

"Making it a matter of taste," said the doctor.

"I'm sure I would," said Norman aside to Ethel. "What's the use of
getting oneself disgusted?"

"One must not begin with showing dislike," began Ethel, "or--"

"Ay--you like rags, don't you? but hush!"

"That is just what I should expect of Mr. Rivers," said Dr. May; "he
has cultivated his taste till it is getting to be a disease, but his
daughter has no lack of wit."

"Perhaps not. Charles and Mary are very fond of her, but she is entirely
inexperienced, and that is a serious thing with so much money to throw
about. She pays people for sending their children to school, and keeping
their houses tidy; and there is