ted
hour for church. The short intervals of being alone with her mother
were spent in pouring out histories of her doings, which were received
with a sympathy that doubled their pleasure, excepting when Nuttie
thought proper to grumble and scold at her mother's not coming to some
Church festival at an hour when she thought Mr. Egremont might want her.

Of him Nuttie saw very little. He did not want her, and cared little
what she did, as long as she was under the wing of Lady Kirkaldy, whose
patronage was a triumphant refutation of all doubts. He went his own
way, and had his own club, his own associates, and, with his wife
always at his beck and call, troubled himself very little about
anything else.

Alice spent a good deal of time alone, chiefly in waiting his pleasure;
but she had her own quiet occupations, her books, her needlework, her
housekeeping, and letter-writing, and was peacefully happy as long as
she did not displease Nuttie. There were no collisions between father
and daughter, and the household arrangements satisfied that fastidious
taste. She was proud of Ursula's successes, but very thankful not to
be dragged out to share them, though she was much less shy, and more
able on occasion to take her place.

One pain she had. Good old Mrs. Nugent was rapidly decaying, and she
shared with all her loving heart in the grief this was to Mary and to
Miss Headworth, and longed to help them in their nursing. She would
not grieve Nuttie by dwelling constantly on the bad accounts, and the
girl hardly attended to them in the tumult of occupations; and so at
last, when the final tidings came in the second week in July, they were
an absolute shock to Nuttie, and affected her as the first grief
sometimes does. Mrs. Nugent was really the first person of her own
intimate knowledge who had died, and in the excited state in which she
was, the idea of the contrast between her own occupations and Mary's
was so dreadful to her that she wept most bitterly, with the sobs of
childhood, such as she really did not know how to restrain.

It was an unfortunate day, for it was one of the few on which Mr.
Egremont wanted to take out his ladies. There was to be a great
garden-party at Richmond, given by one of his former set, who had
lately whitewashed himself by marrying a very fast and fashionable
lady. Nuttie had heard strong opinions on the subject at Lord
Kirkaldy's; but her father was quite elated at being in a positio