here _never_ was a man like daddy, and we are so happy with him.'

'Lucy--your name is Lucy, isn't it?'

'I am called Jasmine, but my name is Lucy,' said the girl, with a sigh.

'That was your mother's name,' continued Miss Agnes. 'You remind me of
her a little, without having her great beauty. You are a plain child,
Lucy, but you ought to be thankful, seeing that such is the will of the
Almighty.'

'Jasper says I am exceedingly handsome,' replied Lucy.

'Oh, that awful boy! What a man your father must be to allow such
talk!'

'Please, please, auntie, don't speak against him. He's an angel, if
ever there was one. I want to make you happy, auntie; but if you speak
against father, I greatly fear I can't. Please, for the sake of my
mother, be nice to father.'

'I mean to be nice to every one, child. I have come here for the
purpose. You certainly have a look of your mother. You have got her
eyes, for instance.'

'Oh yes, her eyes and her chin and the roses in the cheeks,' said
Jasmine. 'Father calls me the comfort of his life. No one ever, ever
said I was ugly before, Aunt Agnes.'

'I perceive that you are an exceedingly vain little girl; but that will
be soon knocked out of you.'

'How?' asked Jasmine.

'When my dear friend, Mrs Macintyre, starts her noble school.'

'School!' said Jasmine, turning a little pale. 'But father says he
will never allow any of us to go to school.'

'He will do what _I_ wish in this matter. Dear, dear, what a dreary
room, so large, and only half-furnished! No wonder poor Lucy died
here. She was a timid little thing. She probably died in the very bed
that you are putting me into--so thoughtless--so unkind.'

'It isn't thoughtless or unkind, Aunt Agnes, for father sleeps in the
bed where mother died, and in the room where she died. But now I hear
the boys all arriving. The water in this jug is nice and hot, and here
are fresh towels, and Magsie'----

'Who is Magsie?'

'She's a maid; if you ring that bell just there, she 'll come to you,
and unpack your trunks. By the way, what a lot of trunks you have
brought, Aunt Agnes! I thought you were only coming for a couple of
days.'

'Polite, I must say,' remarked Miss Delacour.

'We all thought it,' remarked Jasmine, 'for, you see, you would not
come to darling mother's funeral--that _did_ hurt father so awfully.'

'I could not get away. I was helping the sick. It was a case of
cataract,' said Miss Delacour