you didn't."

This remark threatened to disturb the harmony of the party; so Mrs.
Englefield broke it up, and sent everybody to bed.

"How do you like our Mr. Richmond, Clarissa?" she asked, as they were
separating.

"I don't know, Aunt Marianne; it struck me he was something of an
enthusiast."

"That is just what I think," said Mrs. Englefield.

"Those people are dangerous, Marianne," said Mrs. Candy.

CHAPTER V.

The next day but one, in the afternoon, a little figure set out from
Mrs. Englefield's gate on a solitary expedition. She had left her
sisters and cousin in high debate, over the various probabilities of
pleasure attainable through the means of twenty-five dollars. Matilda
listened gravely for a while; then left them, put on her hood and
cloak, and went out alone. It was rather late in the short winter
afternoon; the slanting sunbeams made a gleam of cheer, though it was
cold cheer too, upon the snowy streets. They stretched away, the white
streets, heaped with banks of snow where the gutters should be,
overhung with brown branches of trees, where in summer the leafy canopy
made a pleasant shade all along the way. No shade was wanted now; the
air was growing more keen already since the sun had got so far down in
the west. Tilly turned the corner, where by Mr. Forshew's hardware shop
there was often a country waggon standing, and always a knot of
loitering men and boys gathering or retailing the news, if there was
any; when there was none, seeking a poorer amusement still in stories
and jests, mingled with profanity and tobacco. Tilly was always glad to
have passed the corner; not that there was the least danger of
incivility from any one lingering there, but she did not like the
neighbourhood of such people. She turned up towards the church, which
stood in one of the principal streets of the village. Matilda herself
lived in the other principal street. The two were at right angles to
each other, each extending perhaps half a mile, with comfortable houses
standing along the way; about the "corner" they stood close together,
for that was the business quarter, and there were the stores. Passing
the stores and shops, there came next a succession of dwelling-houses,
some of more and some of less pretension; in general it was _less_. The
new houses of the successful tradesmen were for the most part in the
street where Matilda's mother lived. These were many of them old and
low; some were poor. Here