rovoking! But I will be revenged, that I will!"
"And what will you do?" asked Isabella; "what do you mean by revenge? I
am sure it is something very wrong."
"It is only making others feel as well as ourselves, that's all."
"But if they vex us, why should we vex them? I know I always feel sorry
when I have made people angry."
"Don't talk to me--I will write such a theme!"
"Ah, Miss Bruce! mamma says we should never do wrong."
"I wish you would not mention your mamma, for it is a very ugly word."
"O, Miss Bruce, I never heard such a thing!"
"I once loved it dearly," said Miss Bruce, in a softened tone. "Those
were happy days! I can fancy I see somebody now, sitting up in bed, with
her nice white cap, so pale, and so pretty; and somebody kneeling by
her, and praying for her, and blessing her. But all would not do, to
save one I loved!" Here tears trickled from her eyes: but she suddenly
recollected herself; "I must not think of it; it is over, and for ever
gone! And now for my theme."
"Poor Miss Bruce," said Isabella, in a soothing tone, "I wish you were
my sister, and then you would have my mamma, and she would love you so!"
"And do you think I would give up some one, for all the mammas in the
world! No, no--there is no one like him. But I will mortify Mrs. Adair,
that I will! To think that I must not go to my Aunt's on Thursday! And
there will be my cousins, and Edward Warner, and Margaret James, and
some one who is worth them all; though I don't talk of him as you talk
of your Papa."
After musing a few minutes, with her pencil in her hand, and her head
resting upon a slate, she joyfully exclaimed, "I have it, I have it
indeed!"
"And what have you got?" cried Isabella, as she sprang from her seat,
and looked over Miss Bruce's shoulder.
"Only my ideas; neither apples nor plums. But I wish you would not wipe
my face with your curls. I have got the clue to my fable; I will have
Mrs. Adair, and I think your papa too."
"I am sure you never shall: you never saw papa!"
"Indeed Miss Isabella, you are quite mistaken; I have seen him in shop
windows, in magazines, and I am certain he is in a fine gilt frame in
our study."
"I wish people would not take such liberties. Papa has no business to
be in windows, and other people's frames."
"Why, don't you know that only great writers, and great fighters, and
very good men, and very bad men, are noticed that way! If your papa was
not good as well as g
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