d
not have made such an elegant reverence; but he did not speak a word.
His aunt laughed a little, and yet gave a glance of admiration at the
boy.

"You are not changed," she said.

Changed in what? Matilda wondered; and she looked to see what she could
make out in David Bartholomew. He was not so dark as his sister; he had
rich brown hair; and the black eyes were not snapping and sparkling
like hers, but large, lustrous, proud, and rather gloomy, it seemed to
the little stranger's fancy. She looked away again; she did not like
him. In another minute they were called to dinner.

It was but to walk across the hall, and Matilda found herself seated at
the most imposing board she had ever beheld. Certainly everything at
Mrs. Laval's table was beautiful and costly; but there it had been only
a table for two or three; no company, and the simplest way of the
house. Here there was a good tableful, and a large table; and the
sparkle of glass and silver quite dazzled the child's unaccustomed
eyes. How much silver, and what brilliant and beautiful glass! She
wondered at the profusion of forks by her own plate, and almost thought
the waiter must have made a mistake; but she saw Norton was as well
supplied. The lights, and the flowers, and the fruit in the centre of
the table, and the gay silks and laces around it, and all the
appointments of the elegant room, almost bewildered Matilda. Yet she
thought it was very pleasant too, and extremely pretty; and discovered
that eating dinner was a great deal more of a pleasure when the eyes
could be so gratified at the same time with the taste. However, soup
was soup, she found, to a hungry little girl.

"Pink," said Norton, after he had swallowed _his_ soup,--"where do you
think we will go first?" Norton had got a seat beside her and spoke in
a confidential whisper.

"I am going with your mother to-morrow," Matilda returned in an
answering whisper. "So she said."

"That won't tire you out," said Norton. "After she goes, or before she
goes, you and I will go. Where first?"

"You and I alone?" said Matilda softly.

"Alone!"

"Norton," said Matilda very softly, "I think I want to go first of all
to the shoemaker's."

Norton had nearly burst out into a laugh, but he crammed his napkin
against his face.

"You dear Pink!" he said; "that isn't anywhere. That's business. I mean
pleasure. You see, next week I shall begin to go to school, and my time
will be pretty nicely taken up, e