ey very poor?" asked Henrietta.

"Yes: but it was beautiful to see how she accommodated herself to it.
The house that once looked dingy and desolate, was very soon pretty and
cheerful, and the wirtschaft so well ordered and economical, that Aunt
Roger was struck dumb with admiration. I shall not forget Lady Susan's
visit the last morning we spent with her in London, how amazed she was
to find 'poor Beatrice' looking so bright and like herself, and how
little she guessed at her morning's work, the study of shirt-making, and
the copying out a review of her husband's, full of Greek quotations."

"Well, the poverty is all over now," said Henrietta; "but still they
live in a very quiet way, considering Aunt Geoffrey's connexions and the
fortune he has made."

"Who put that notion into your head, my wise daughter?" said Mrs.
Langford.

Henrietta blushed, laughed, and mentioned Lady Matilda St. Leger, a
cousin of her aunt Geoffrey's of whom she had seen something in the last
year.

"The truth is," said Mrs. Langford, "that your aunt had display and
luxury enough in her youth to value it as it deserves, and he could not
desire it except for her sake. They had rather give with a free hand,
beyond what any one knows or suspects."

"Ah! I know among other things that he sends Alexander to school," said
Fred.

"Yes, and the improvements at Knight Sutton," said Henrietta, "the
school, and all that grandpapa wished but could never afford. Well,
mamma, if you made the match, you deserve to be congratulated on your
work."

"There's nobody like Uncle Geoffrey, I have said, and shall always
maintain," said Fred.

His mother sighed, saying, "I don't know what we should have done
without him!" and became silent. Henrietta saw an expression on her
countenance which made her unwilling to disturb her, and nothing more
was said till it was discovered that it was bed time.

CHAPTER III.

"Where is Madame?" asked Frederick of his sister, as she entered the
breakfast room alone the next morning with the key of the tea-chest in
her hand.

"A headache," answered Henrietta, "and a palpitation."

"A bad one?"

"Yes, very; and I am afraid it is our fault, Freddy; I am convinced it
will not do, and we must give it up."

"How do you mean? The going to Knight Sutton? What has that to do with
it? Is it the reviving old recollections that is too much for her?"

"Just listen what an effect last evening's conversation had upon