he arrival took place,
and Rose darted forward to receive Aunt Ailie's greeting kiss.

"Yes, Rosie--yes, Violetta; what do you think I have got for you?"

And out came a doll's chair with a broken leg, condemned by the
departing pupils, and granted with a laugh to the governess's request
to take it to her little niece; but never in its best days had the chair
been so prized. It was introduced to Violetta as the reward of virtue
for having controlled her fretfulness, and the repair of its infirmity
was the first consideration that occupied all the three. After all,
Violetta's sitting posture was, as Alison observed, an example of the
inclined plane, but that was nothing to Rose, and the seance would
have been indefinitely prolonged, but for considerations for Violetta's
health.

The sisters were alike, and Alison had, like her elder, what is
emphatically called countenance, but her features were less chiselled,
and her dark straight brows so nearly met that, as Rose had once
remarked, they made a bridge of one arch instead of two. Six years
younger, in full health, and daily battling with the world, Alison had a
remarkable look of concentration and vigour, her upright bearing, clear
decided speech, and glance of kindness won instant respect and reliance,
but her face missed the radiant beamy brightness of her sister's; her
face was sweet and winning, but it was not habitual with her, and there
was about her a look as if some terrible wave of grief or suffering
had swept over her ere yet the features were fully fixed, and had thus
moulded her expression for life. But playfulness was the tone that
reigned around Ermine's couch at ordinary moments, and beside her the
grave Alison was lively, not with effort, but by infection.

"There," she said, holding up a cheque; "now we'll have a jubilee,
and take you down under the East cliff, and we'll invest a shilling in
'Ivanhoe,' and Rose and Violetta shall open their ears!"

"And you shall have a respectable Sunday mantle."

"Oh, I dare say Julia will send us a box."

"Then you will have to put a label on your back, 'Second-hand!' or
her velvet will be a scandal. I can't wear out that at home like this
flagrant, flowery thing, that I saw Miss Curtis looking at as rather
a disreputable article. There's preferment for you, Ailie! What do you
think of a general's widow with six boys? She is come after you. We
had a great invasion--three Curtises and this pretty little widow,