which, to do the
poor lady justice, was intended directly for her own habitation.

She took the letter and spread it out carefully before her; these
epistolary children of hers were tenderly dear to Miss Madigan. Her eye
caught a phrase here and there that appeared to be singularly
felicitous. This one, for instance:

Poor Francis, of course, knows nothing about this
letter. I am writing to you, my dear cousin, relying as
much upon your discretion as upon your generosity.

Or this one:

And Cecilia--she is really talented, though a commonplace
creature like myself can hardly give you an idea in just
what direction.

Or this one:

As to Irene, apart from her voice, which is really
exceptional, she is Francis over again--Francis as he
was, a high-spirited, reckless, devil-may-care fellow,
winning and tyrannical, as we all remember him in the
old days when the world was young.

Or even this:

I am afraid Kate will have to teach school, young as
she is. I can't tell you how I dread the long years of
drudgery I see before this slender, spirited child--she
is little more than that. Think, Miles, of these
motherless children growing up in this wretched hole
without the smallest advantage, and, if you can, help
them; or get some one else to. Couldn't you take Kate
into your own family? I'm sure she'd marry well, and
Nora wouldn't be troubled with her long. She's really
very pretty. Or couldn't you send me a little something
to spend on clothes for her? Or couldn't Nora be
persuaded to send her--

"Well," thundered Madigan, standing over her, "it must be pretty
familiar to you. Suppose you read what Nora says."

Miss Madigan put her own letter away with a sigh. It was really
unaccountable that Miles could have resisted it.

"Miles passed away six weeks ago,"

she read aloud in an awed voice.

"He had been ailing all spring. This letter, which came
a fortnight since, I opened, of course, and return it
to you that you may be made aware (if you are not
already) of the demands Anne makes upon comparative
strangers.

"For myself, I regret very much that your affairs are in
such a bad state. Anne says that there are six of your
children, all girls; but that can't be true--she always
loved to exaggerate miseries; it must be that her
writing is so illegible that--"

Miss Madig