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We will now, however, proceed with Blanche, to the moment when she alighted from the carriage, and entered her aunt's door; being for an instant almost blinded by the light which She was hung from the ceiling of the wide old-fashioned hall. immediately ushered, by a somewhat pert lady's maid, into a large drawing-room of ancient pattern, indeed, as to its wainscotted walls and heavy mantel-shelf, but not as to its furniture and appointments, which were all in the modern style; every part of the room being as fully crowded with trifles, as it is possible to suppose the mind of its occupant to have been, although we may believe that the narrowest human mind may contain more impertinency than the widest chamber ever formed by human hands.

Mrs. Norman met her niece with the utmost cordiality, repeating, whilst she led her towards the fire, "Now this is good-very, very good ;" and she called to her maid to lose no time in bringing up the tea-things; "for," said she, “you must be hungry, my dear niece; and perhaps have had no regular dinner, and you shall have some tea to refresh you before supper. I always have a little hot supper, and rejoice to have one such as you to partake it with me: so come now, make yourself comfortable, and whilst you are warming your feet, tell me all, how and about it, of things at home, and the dear papa and mamma."

Whilst Blanche was answering a thousand questions which were being put to her, it cannot be doubted that she was examining her aunt, the person with whom she was to spend the next two months, and in whom she was to effect such a very great change for the better. But it is sad to be obliged to say that the more the niece looked at the aunt, the more her courage seemed to fail her; for Mrs. Norman was not only a person who had much appearance of consequence in her manner and carriage, but was remarkably well-dressed as to the make and materials of her clothes; though assuredly they would have suited her better twenty years before. And, as might be expected, from their positions as aunt and niece, she was more disposed to give than to receive admonitions and advice; for even before the tea was made, she hinted some changes in Blanche's style of dressing her hair, and other such matters.

When this first refreshment had been taken, the old lady called her niece again to the fire, and saying "you must give up

this evening to rest," she placed herself opposite to her, and began her questionings again about the family at home, hinting that she thought it very strange that not one of her brother's girls had ever been sent to school.

Blanche replied that her mamma was so situated that she could give all her time to instructing them.

"I am sure," replied Mrs. Norman, "that as far as a good domestic education can go, my sister Selwyn is most capable; but with regard to accomplishments, and the very necessary acquirement of easy and polished manners, there are few persons who can give them, excepting such as make education their business; does your mother object to boarding schools, Blanche? I have some notion that she does."

"She thinks, aunt," replied Blanche, "that perhaps in general too much time is given in them to accomplishments, and too little attention paid perhaps❞—to-and there she hesitated from observing a sudden twinkle in the old lady's eyes, which seemed to say, 'There it comes-a savour of the serious school to which my brother belongs;' and changed her intended phrase from,too little attention to religious instruction, to-" too little, to solid instruction." And so conscious was she of her false shame, in this instance, that she could think of little else, till suppertime, and scarcely heard a word of what the aunt went on to tell her of the gossip of the town and its charming neighbourhood.

Mrs. Norman perceived the absence and apparent languor of her niece, but setting them down to fatigue, she ordered her nice little hot supper to be hastened, after which she turned again to the fire, to warm her feet as she said, before she went to bed.

Of course Blanche in common civility must turn with her, though even the supper had not fitted her to become better company; for she was thinking how, as there was no word of family prayer, she could introduce a proposition of reading a chapter before they separated for the night.

Shall I, she thought, make the proposal in a sort of off-hand way, as for example, shall I say-" We have not yet read our chapter, aunt, I shall not sleep without my chapter; shall I read it, or will you, dear aunt?" Or shall I say "My father having used me to read a chapter or a few verses the last thing every night, I

will, if you please, read my portion aloud :" or shall I go straight to the point, and say,-" Dear aunt, let us finish this our first evening together with a short scripture reading :" or not to be tedious, shall I try this or that :-every such enquiry only tending to increase that sense of false shame which had been growing upon her from the moment in which she had entered the fine drawing room. This wicked shame invariably grows with any and every attempt to reason with it, or to resist it, in natural strength. At length with a strong effort, the poor young girl actually got out these words at the end of one of her aunt's gossiping narratives." I was thinking that if it was agreeable to you, ma'am, I should much like"very

"To retire to rest, no doubt, my dear," interrupted Mrs. Norman, stretching out her hand, and ringing the bell even whilst speaking; “I should have proposed a move before, had I been more attentive;" and directing her maid, who entered almost immediately on her ringing, to conduct Miss Selwyn to her room; and to see that she had everything she could possibly require, Blanche was compelled to retreat under the painful consciousness of having wholly failed in her purposes from the influence of some unaccountable feeling which she had never before experienced. She could not even sleep till she had soothed herself with this reflection, that as yet she had lost only a very little time, a very small fraction of two months, and that she would on the morrow, more than make up for this small loss.

The morrow came, and Blanche arose with as full assurance of being able to begin her desired work that day; and indeed so to begin it, that she should have smooth work on the following day, which would be Sunday. She found, when getting up, that she had some symptoms about her of having caught cold the day before; but she had had colds before and gave herself little trouble about them, though Mrs. Norman kindly made much of it at breakfast, and insisted that she should not go out whilst the slight disease hung about her. Well, thought Blanche, if I must stay within, I shall have more time for fulfilling my little plans with my aunt; and when breakfast was over, she fetched some needlework and her little Bible into the drawing room, thinking that she would only wait till her aunt seemed to be settled in her place, before she would propose a chapter, for as there had been no word

of family prayers the last night, neither was there any that morning.

But Blanche, who had come out of a family which well understood the art of redeeming the time, was quite new to the various ingenious ways of frittering it away, so much in use amongst females of frivolous minds in easy circumstances. It had struck twelve by the clock of the only church in the town, before Mrs. Norman took a large piece of fancy knitting, and seated herself in her easy chair as if she intended to remain there awhile. Up to this time she had been going in and out of the room, taking up this and that fancy article off the bureaus and tables, turning them about, shewing them to her neice, puffing dust off them, and arranging them again in their places; peeping occasionally out of the windows, watching and commenting upon the passersby; ringing for her maid and gossiping with her under the covert of giving domestic orders; looking for a letter or some other thing which had been displaced, and heaping various new periodicals before her niece. By so doing, she had interrupted the progress of her needle every five minutes: at length, as has been before said, she sat down, and Blanche felt that the moment was arrived for opening that day's campaign. The poor young ladyfor it is expected that every gentle reader who has ever felt any similar feelings of this false shame with poor Blanche, must have some sympathy with her-had gone so far as to put her hand into her sack and draw out her little Bible, and had actually prepared the speech she was to make by way of introduction to the formidable proposition of reading it, when all was put aside by a very usual accident to all knitters. Her speech was to have been to this effect,—“ Whilst you are knitting, dear aunt, I will, if it is quite agreeable to you, read a few chapters aloud, as we often do at home when our fingers only are employed "—and her lips were already parted preparatory to its delivery, when her intention was arrested by a sudden exclamation on the part of Mrs. Norman, on the dropping of a stitch, which by the slipping of other loops, very speedily presented a long and somewhat intricate ladder in her work; and what is more distressing to a fancy-knitter than a long ladder ?

Had Blanche been possessed of courage and quickness, she might have used this very ladder for getting into the citadel-she

might have made her proposition and actually commenced her scripture-reading, before the perplexed knitter would have been sufficiently disengaged to know what she was about, and it is most probable that when she should have done so, her politeness would not have permitted her to have cut the lecture short, and thus Blanche would have gained that first step, always so costly to false shame, had she not hesitated under the idea that she must not make her proposal and begin to read until the knitting was in due order. Again, two quarters after twelve had struck before this was effected, and another unexceptionable moment for action presented itself; for although Mrs. Norman had thrown down her work, as if to refresh herself after her unwonted effort, yet she was sitting still and even not speaking. But it seemed almost that the very suitableness of the time and circumstances only administered the more to Blanche's timidity instead of giving her encouragement. In place of secretly asking for divine help, she was again consulting her own judgment as to the words she should use in making this dread proposal, and had wasted almost another five minutes-several more indeed than would have served for making the one great first step, which was to obtain permission to read the scriptures to her aunt when occasions such as the present should serve—when the drawing room door was unceremoniously burst open, and a brisk little elderly person rushed in.

“Mistress Martha Pennefeather, or her ghost!" exclaimed Mrs. Norman, with glee,—“ Can it be you, my dear friend, whom I believed to be a hundred miles off, and bound to remain so for six months to come.-Well I am glad to see you, and to know that I shall have you next door, I hope all the winter."

This Mrs. Martha was a little, lively, sallow, and very thin personage, who, if not younger than Mrs. Norman, was vastly better able to exert herself, and eke out her very small income by attentions to her more affluent neighbours: she was full of gossip, told her stories well, and had often something flattering to say to every one with whom she fell into company, falling in with every body's and any body's whims and tastes, when she thought she could make herself pleasant by so doing.

Mrs. Martha was invited to finish the day at Mrs. Norman's, paying for her excellent fare by the industry with which she advanced the remarkable piece of knitting of her patroness.

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