such an extent, that she could neither be happy nor
contented herself, nor allow any one near her to be so either. When the
lid of the box was opened, she, with a little momentary eagerness for
the new toy, pulled off the silver paper and wool, and brought me out of
my travelling box.

"'It's a horrid Baby Doll,' she exclaimed, in a loud tone of angry
disappointment, 'a stupid, old-fashioned, ugly Baby Doll! and I hate
them, horrid, stupid things; what did they send me that for?' and she
burst into a roar of passionate ill-temper. In vain did governess and
maid try to pacify her; she screamed and pouted till her foolish, doting
mother was obliged to sacrifice some visits she was going to make in
order to drive in with her spoiled child to the nearest toy-shop, to
purchase an expensive and more gaily-attired doll.

"'I can't think what Mrs. Levesque could have been thinking of,' she
murmured, pettishly, as she got into the carriage again, 'to send Alicia
such a foolish thing, after making such a fuss about it too! It has
vexed the poor little thing so, and upset her too much, which Dr. Blueby
says is _so_ bad for her!'

"So when they returned home, Alicia went off with her new purchase, for
a few hours of good humour and peace, while her ladyship desired the
governess to pack me up in the box, and send me down with her
compliments to the Rectory, to Dr. Stewart's little daughter, Flora. I
found my new home much more to my taste; for, although also an only
child, this little maiden was of a very different mind to the other. She
was more delicate in health than the young lady at the Castle, for from
a serious weakness of the spine she was obliged to lie down for many
hours in the day, and was not able to run about and enjoy herself in the
garden, as she often wished to do. But she was a naturally even-tempered
child, and although she had long been motherless, her wise father had
been a tender and judicious guardian, and her old nurse, who had watched
over her from babyhood, loved her as a child of her own.

"I was amply repaid for the slights and affronts I had experienced from
Lady Alicia, when I was carried in my box to the reclining board where
Flora was then lying, for her father, delighted enough to bring his
patient little girl a new pleasure, carried me in himself, saying,--

"'Flora, here is a New Year's gift for you from the Castle. It is very
kind of Lady Ennismore to remember my little girl. I am almost inc