fragments of
broken bread, agreed in loving and praising the child, who, though
neither beautiful nor elegantly dressed, had a fairy lightness of step,
a grace of movement, and a dignity of bearing which impressed them all
with the conviction that she was no beggar in spirit, whatever might be
her birth or fortune. Mrs. Ellis's prejudices against her was still
strong; but, as Gertrude was always civil, and Emily prudently kept them
much apart, no unhappy result ensued.

She went often to see Mrs. Sullivan, and, as the spring advanced, they
began to look for news of Willie. No tidings had come, however, when the
season arrived for the Grahams to remove into the country for the
summer. A letter written by Gertrude to Willie, soon after they were
established there, will give some idea of her situation and mode of
life.

After dwelling upon the disappointment of having not yet heard from him,
and giving an account of the last visit she had made to his mother
before leaving the city, she wrote: "But you made me promise, Willie, to
write about myself, and said you should wish to hear everything that
occurred at Mr. Graham's which concerned me in anyway; so if my letter
is more tedious than usual, it is your own fault, for I have much to
tell of our removal to D----, and of the way in which we live here, so
different from our life in Boston. I think I hear you say, when you have
read so far, 'O dear! now Gerty is going to give me a description of Mr.
Graham's country-house!'--but you need not be afraid; I have not
forgotten how, the last time I undertook to do so, you placed your hand
over my mouth to stop me, and assured me you knew the place as well as
if you had lived there all your life, for I oft described it to you.
Everything looks smaller and less beautiful than it seemed to me then;
and, though I will not describe it to you again, I must just tell you
that the entry and piazzas are much narrower than I expected, the rooms
lower, and the garden and summer-houses not nearly so large. Miss Emily
asked me, a day or two ago, how I liked the place, and if it looked as
it used formerly. I told her the truth; and she was not at all
displeased, but laughed at my old recollections of the house and
grounds, and said it was always so with things we had seen when we were
little children.

"I need not tell you that Miss Emily is kind to me as ever; for nobody
who knows her as you do would suppose she could ever be anything but