-old Mattie was only one
of the many daughters,--the old maid of the family,--the unattractive
little wall-flower who was condemned to wither unnoticed on its stalk.
Here, in her brother's vicarage, she had been a person of consequence,
whom only the master of the house presumed to snub.

The maids liked their good-natured mistress, who never found fault
with them, and who was so bustling and clever a little housekeeper.
The poor people and the school-children liked Mattie too. "Our Miss
Drummond" they called her for a long time, rather to Grace's
discomfiture. "Ah, she is a rare one, when a body is low!" as old
Goody Saunders once said.

And Archie's friends respected the little woman, in spite of her
crudities and decidedly odd ways. Miss Middleton and the Challoners
were quite fond of her. So no wonder Mattie grew low at the thought of
leaving her friends.

Grace had come to take her place. Nevertheless, she had welcomed her
on the previous evening with the utmost cheerfulness and
unselfishness. She had shown her the house; she had introduced her to
the Challoners; she had overwhelmed her with a thousand little
attentions; and Grace had not been ungrateful.

"I am afraid this is hard for you, Mattie," Grace had said to her, as
the sisters were unpacking late the previous night. "I ought not be so
happy to come, when I know I am turning you out." And Mattie had
winked away a tear, and answered, quite cheerily,--

"Oh, no, Grace; you must not feel that. I have had a nice time, and
enjoyed myself so much with dear Archie, and now it is your turn; and,
you know, he has always wanted you from the first."

"Poor dear fellow!" murmured Grace; "but he looks thin, Mattie.
Perhaps I ought to be here, as he wants me; but I shall never keep his
house as beautifully as you have done. Mother would be astonished if
she saw it." And this piece of well-deserved praise went far to
console Mattie that night.

But she began to feel just a little sore at breakfast-time. Once or
twice, Archie decidedly ignored her, and turned to Grace; he even
brought her his gloves to mend, though Mattie had been his faithful
mender all these months.

"Come into the study, and we will have a talk, Grace," he had said,
and as Grace had involuntarily waited for her sister to accompany
them, he had-added, hastily: "Oh, Mattie is always busy at this time
with butchers and bakers! Come along, Grace:" and, though Mattie had
no such business on her h