seen
before, but it was all the fashion when she was young; a hat of some
soft white stuff like beaver, pulled a little over her brows, and a
beautiful plume of feathers sweeping round it on one side; and her gown
of blue satin was open in front to a quilted white stomacher.

'Well, to be sure!' said I, when I had gazed my fill. 'Flesh is grass,
they do say; but who would have thought that Miss Furnivall had been
such an out-and-out beauty, to see her now.'

'Yes,' said Dorothy. 'Folks change sadly. But if what my master's
father used to say was true, Miss Furnivall, the elder sister, was
handsomer than Miss Grace. Her picture is here somewhere; but, if I
show it you, you must never let on, even to James, that you have seen
it. Can the little lady hold her tongue, think you?' asked she.

I was not so sure, for she was such a little sweet, bold, open-spoken
child, so I set her to hide herself; and then I helped Dorothy to turn
a great picture, that leaned with its face towards the wall, and was
not hung up as the others were. To be sure, it beat Miss Grace for
beauty; and, I think, for scornful pride, too, though in that matter it
might be hard to choose. I could have looked at it an hour, but Dorothy
seemed half frightened at having shown it to me, and hurried it back
again, and bade me run and find Miss Rosamond, for that there were some
ugly places about the house, where she should like ill for the child to
go. I was a brave, high-spirited girl, and thought little of what the
old woman said, for I liked hide-and-seek as well as any child in the
parish; so off I ran to find my little one.

As winter drew on, and the days grew shorter, I was sometimes almost
certain that I heard a noise as if someone was playing on the great
organ in the hall. I did not hear it every evening; but, certainly, I
did very often, usually when I was sitting with Miss Rosamond, after I
had put her to bed, and keeping quite still and silent in the bedroom.
Then I used to hear it booming and swelling away in the distance. The
first night, when I went down to my supper, I asked Dorothy who had
been playing music, and James said very shortly that I was a gowk to
take the wind soughing among the trees for music; but I saw Dorothy
look at him very fearfully, and Bessy, the kitchen-maid, said something
beneath her breath, and went quite white. I saw they did not like my
question, so I held my peace till I was with Dorothy alone, when I knew
I c