ed
round her, smiled, hesitated a little, and then walked across the room
and put the envelope in the secret drawer. She was still fumbling with it
when Jervis came back; but there was no connection in Jervis's mind, then
or ever after, between the paper she had signed and this old cabinet,
which was one of the old lady's toys. She arranged Lady Mary's shawl,
which had dropped off her shoulders a little in her unusual activity,
and took up her book and her favorite cushion, and all the little
paraphernalia that moved with her, and gave her lady her arm to go
down-stairs; where little Mary had placed her chair just at the right
angle, and arranged the little table, on which there were so many little
necessaries and conveniences, and was standing smiling, the prettiest
object of all, the climax of the gentle luxury and pleasantness, to
receive her godmother, who had been her providence all her life.

But what a pity! oh, what a pity, that she had not died that night!

II.

Life went on after this without any change. There was never any change in
that delightful house; and if it was years, or months, or even days, the
youngest of its inhabitants could scarcely tell, and Lady Mary could not
tell at all. This was one of her little imperfections,--a little mist
which hung, like the lace about her head, over her memory. She could not
remember how time went, or that there was any difference between one day
and another. There were Sundays, it was true, which made a kind of gentle
measure of the progress of time; but she said, with a smile, that she
thought it was always Sunday--they came so close upon each other. And
time flew on gentle wings, that made no sound and left no reminders. She
had her little ailments like anybody, but in reality less than anybody,
seeing there was nothing to fret her, nothing to disturb the even tenor
of her days. Still there were times when she took a little cold, or got a
chill, in spite of all precautions, as she went from one room to another.
She came to be one of the marvels of the time,--an old lady who had seen
everybody worth seeing for generations back; who remembered as distinctly
as if they had happened yesterday, great events that had taken place
before the present age began at all, before the great statesmen of our
time were born; and in full possession of all her faculties, as everybody
said, her mind as clear as ever, her intelligence as active, reading
everything, interested