nd, feeling all over the
pin-cushion for a pin, and shaking out the newspaper with an expression on
her face which told that it was a perfectly blank sheet to her: while this
state of things went on, Terry had no time to think of fresh adventures, so
eager was she to come to Nursey's relief with her sharp young eyes and her
quick little fingers.

However, a more thorough relief was at hand, and it happened in this way.

Walsh, the old steward at Trimleston, was the same age as Nancy, and the
same kind of spectacles suited him. He sometimes went a journey to a town
about thirty miles away to pay bills for Madam, and to order things that
were wanted about the place. Granny suddenly discovered that he might as
well take the journey now as wait for the spring. She gave him a long list
of matters to be attended to for her, and then she said:

"And you had better go to the optician's, Walsh, and choose a pair of
spectacles to suit yourself, and bring them to me for Nurse Nancy."

As soon as Terry saw Nursey's keen brown eyes looking at her through the
familiar little glass windows once more, she felt her remorse slip away
from her, and her liberty return.

"Nursey is able to take care of herself now," she thought, "and I have
nothing to do. I wish I cared about reading, but I don't. I like people to
tell me stories, but nobody has more than a few, and you get to know them
all off by heart. The books always say such a lot between the happening
parts, and if you skip too much you lose part of the story. The story
people all sit down and fold their hands, and wait till the close thick
pages of prosy prosy are over, and when they get up again and go on they
have forgotten their parts. Pappy says I shall like reading when I'm older;
but I'm not older, and I don't like it. I just like to be doing something,
and oh, dear, there is nothing to do!"

Terry was sitting at the nursery fire waiting to be summoned to Granny's
sitting-room. She had on her pretty white frock, her gold curls were all
brushed up into a thousand shining rings, and her blue silk work-bag was
hanging by its ribbons from her arms. She had been extremely good and quiet
all day, and she was intending to behave nicely to Gran'ma during the
evening. She knew exactly all that would happen. There would be a good tea;
oh, yes, Granny did give such good teas, dear old Gran'ma! And then Terry
would sit on a stool beside her, and embroider a letter on one of Granny's
n