y poor-spirited, though
people think so much of you," said Susan; "and don't you think it is
natural I should wish to go home, now my poor Fred has been taken away
from me? And you confessed it would be best for the children. We know
scarcely anybody here, and the very sight of _that_ Edward that was so
cruel to my poor Fred----"

"Susan, don't be a fool," said Nettie; "you know better in your heart.
If you will tell me plainly what you want, I shall listen to you; but
if not, I will go up-stairs and put away Freddy's things. Only one thing
I may tell you at once; you may leave Carlingford if you please, but I
shall not. I cannot take you back again to have you ill all the way, and
the children threatening to fall overboard twenty times in a day. I did
it once, but I will not do it again."

"You _will_ not?" cried Susan. "Ah, I know what you mean: I know very
well what you mean. You think Edward Rider----"

Nettie rose up and faced her sister with a little gasp of resolution
which frightened Mrs Fred. "I don't intend to have anything said about
Edward Rider," said Nettie; "he has nothing to do with it one way or
another. I tell you what I told him, that I have not the heart to carry
you all back again; and I cannot afford it either; and if you want
anything more, Susan," added the peremptory creature, flashing forth
into something of her old spirit, "I shan't go--and that is surely
enough."

With which words Nettie went off like a little sprite to put away
Freddy's coat, newly completed, along with the other articles of his
wardrobe, at which she had been working all day. In that momentary
impulse of decision and self-will a few notes of a song came unawares
from Nettie's lip, as she glanced, light and rapid as a fairy, up-stairs.
She stopped a minute after with a sigh. Were Nettie's singing days over?
She had at least come at last to find her life hard, and to acknowledge
that this necessity which was laid upon her was grievous by times to
flesh and blood; but not the less for that did she arrange Freddy's
little garments daintily in the drawers, and pause, before she went
down-stairs again, to cover him up in his little bed.

Susan still sat pondering and crying over the fire. Her tears were a
great resource to Mrs Fred. They occupied her when she had nothing else
to occupy herself with; and when she cast a weeping glance up from her
handkerchief to see Nettie draw her chair again to the table, and lay
down a li