the head, peculiar to
sensible women, "had something to show before her age. Bella had worked
the globe long before she was sixteen; and Baby did her filigree
tea-caddy the first quarter she was at Miss Macgowk's," glancing with
triumph from the one which hung over the mantelpiece, to the other which
stood on the tea-table, shrouded in a green bag.

"And, to be sure," rejoined Grizzy, "although Betsy's screen did cost a
great deal of money--that can't be denied; and her father certainly
grudged it very much at the time--there's no doubt of that; yet
certainly it does her the greatest credit, and it is a great
satisfaction to us all to have these things to show. I am sure nobody
would ever think that ass was made of crape, and how naturally it seems
to be eating the beautiful chenille thistle! I declare, I think the ass
is as like an ass as anything can be!"

"And as to Mary's drawing," continued the narrator of her deficiencies,
"there is not one of them fit for framing: mere scratches with a chalk
pencil--what any child might do."

"And to think," said Nicky, with indignation, "how little Mrs. Douglas
seemed to think of the handsome coloured views the girls did at Miss
Macgowk's."

"All our girls have the greatest genius for drawing," observed Grizzy;
"there can be no doubt of that; but it's a thousand pities, I'm sure,
that none of them seem to like it. To be sure they say--what I daresay
is very true--that they can't get such good paper as they got at Miss
Macgowk's; but they have showed that they _can _do, for their drawings
are quite astonishing. Somebody lately took them to be Mr. Touchup's own
doing; and I'm sure there couldn't be a greater compliment than that! I
represented all that to Mrs. Douglas, and urged her very strongly to
give Mary the benefit of at least a quarter of Miss Macgowk's, were it
only for the sake of her carriage; or, at least, to make her wear our
collar."

This was the tenderest of all themes, and bursts of sorrowful
exclamations ensued. The collar had long been a galling yoke upon their
minds; it iron had entered into their very souls; for it was a collar
presented to the family of Glenfern by the wisest, virtuousest, best of
women and of grandmothers, the the good Lady Girnachgowl; and had been
worn in regular rotation by every female of the family till now that
Mrs. Douglas positively refused to subject Mary's pliant form to its
thraldom. Even the Laird, albeit no connoisseur in