offered on the subject."

"But think of the dreadful sacrifice!"

"Such sacrifices are made every day. Emigration, Mrs. Ready, is a matter
of necessity, not of choice. Mr. Lyndsay thinks it necessary for us to
take this step, and I have no doubt that he is right. Did I consult my
own feelings, I should certainly prefer staying at home."

"Of course you would, and you affect this unconcern on purpose to hide
an aching heart. My dear, you cannot deceive me; I see through it all. I
pity you, my sweet friend; I sympathise with you, from my very soul; I
know what your _real_ feelings are; I can realize it all."

Flora remained silent. She certainly did wish that Mrs. Ready occupied
any other place in the United Kingdom at that moment than the
comfortable seat in her easy chair. But what could she do? She could not
inform the lady that she was tired of her company, and wished to be
alone. That would be considered an act of ill-breeding of the most
flagrant description; in common courtesy she was compelled to act a lie.

Rather irritated at the small impression her eloquence had made upon her
companion, Mrs. Ready removed the cambric screen from her face, on which
not a trace of grief could be found, and clasping her hands vehemently
together, continued,--

"Your husband is mad, to draw you away from all your friends at a
moment's warning! I would remonstrate--I would not go; I would exert a
proper spirit, and force him to abandon this Quixotic expedition."

"You speak hastily, Mrs. Ready. Why should I attempt to prevent an
undertaking in which I most cordially concur, and which Mr. Lyndsay
thinks would greatly benefit his family?"

"Nonsense! I hate, I repudiate such passive obedience, as beneath the
dignity of woman! I am none of your soft bread-and-butter wives, who
consider it their _duty_ to become the mere _echo_ of their husbands.
If _I_ did not wish to go, no tyrannical lord of the creation, falsely
so called, should compel me to act against my inclinations."

"Compulsion is not necessary: on this subject we both agree."

"Oh, yes, I see how it is!" with a contemptuous curl of the lip, "you
aspire to the character of a good, dutiful wife,--to become an example
of enduring patience to all the refractory conjugals in the place,
myself among the rest. I understand it all. How _amiable_ some people
can be at the expense of others!"

Flora was thunderstruck. "Indeed, Mrs. Ready, I meant no reflection upon
you.