scullery has n't been used above a--a few times. I should n't wonder
if old Da-Da-Dalton won the villa at play."

"Fudge!--Fuller on the brow, Martha--more expansive there."

"Is n't the girl vulgar, sister?" asked Scroope.

"Decidedly vulgar, and dressed like a fright!--I thought it was only
you, Martha, that rolled up the back hair like a snail's shell." Martha
blushed, but never spoke. "I suppose she's the same that used to cut the
pipe-heads and the umbrella tops. I remarked that her fingers were all
knotted and hard."

"Her smile is very pleasing," submitted Martha, diffidently.

"It's like her father's laugh,--far too natural for my taste! There's
no refinement, no elegance, in one of your sweet, unmeaning smiles. I
thought I had told you that at least twenty times, Martha. But you have
grown self-willed and self-opinionated of late, and I must say, you
couldn't have a graver fault! Correct it in time, I beseech you."

"I 'll try," said Martha, in a very faint voice.

"If you try, you 'll succeed. Look at your brother. See what he has
become. There's an example might stimulate you."

Another and a far deeper sigh was all Martha's acknowledgment of this
speech.

"He was the same violent, impetuous creature that you are. There, you
need n't tear my hair out by the roots to prove it! He wouldn't brook
the very mildest remonstrance; he was passionate and irrestrainable, and
what I have made him. Oh, you spiteful creature, how you hurt me!"

This cry of pain was not quite causeless, for Martha was trembling
from head to foot, and actually only saved herself from falling by a
mechanical clutch at something like a horse's tail. With many excuses,
and in a voice broken by regrets, she resumed her task with a vigorous
effort for success, while Mrs. Ricketts and Purvis exchanged glances of
supreme contempt.

"I speak to you, Martha," resumed she, "for your own sake. You
cannot see what all the world sees,--the sinful selfishness of your
nature,----a vice, I must say, the less pardonable that you live beneath
the shadow of my counsels!--Scroope, don't creak that chair,--sit upon
that stool there.--Now that we shall probably spend two months here--"

"Here! Do--do you m-mean here?" cried Purvis.

"Of course I mean here, sir. There's nothing in the shape of a lodging
to be had under three or four hundred francs a month. This is a very
sweet place; and when the old gentleman can be induced to take a room in
the t