o mother in the morning-room; we might do some of our plain
sewing, and then I can tell you about Aunt Charlotte. It is so long
since we have been cosy together, and our needles will fly while we
talk--eh, Hatty?"

"There are those night shirts to finish," said Christine disconsolately;
"they ought to have been done long ago, but Hatty was always saying her
back ached when I wanted her help, and I could not get on with them by
myself."

"Never mind, we will all set to work vigorously," and Bessie tripped
away to find her work basket. The morning-room, as they called it, was a
small room leading out of the drawing-room, with an old-fashioned bay
window looking out on the garden.

There was a circular cushioned seat running round the bay, with a small
table in the middle, and this was the place where the girls loved to sit
and sew, while their tongues kept pace with their needles. When Hatty's
back ached, or the light made her head throb with pain, she used to
bring her low chair and leave the recess to Bessie and Christine.

The two younger girls went to school.

As Hatty brought her work (she was very skilful with the needle, and
neither of her sisters could vie with her in delicate embroidery), she
slipped a cold little hand into Bessie's.

"It is so lovely to have you back, Betty, dear," she whispered. "I woke
quite happy this morning to know I should see you downstairs."

"I think it is lovely to be home," returned Bessie, with a beaming
smile. "I am sure that is half the pleasure of going away--the coming
back again. I don't know how I should feel if I went to stay at any
grand place; but it always seems to me now that home is the most
delicious place in the world; it never looks shabby to me as it does to
Tom; it is just homelike."

Mrs. Lambert, who was sitting apart from the girls, busy with her weekly
accounts, looked up at hearing her daughter's speech.

"That is right, dear," she said gently, "that is just how I like to hear
you speak; it would grieve me if my girls were to grow discontented with
their home, as some young ladies do."

"Bessie is not like that, mother," interposed Hatty eagerly.

"No, Hatty, we know that, do we not? What do you think father said the
other day, Bessie? He said, 'I shall be glad when we get Bessie back,
for the place does not seem like itself when she is away.' That was a
high compliment from father."

"Indeed it was," returned Bessie; and she blushed with pleasure.