be rather a dull kind of life, you
know; only you and I and the old servants.'

'I shall never feel dull with you, Milly. But tell me how all this
came about. How was it you didn't go abroad with Mr. and Mrs.
Darrell?'

'Ah, that is rather strange, isn't it? The truth of the matter is,
that Augusta did not want me to go with them. She does not like me,
Mary, that is the real truth, through she affects to be very fond of
me, and has contrived to make my father think she is so. What is
there that she cannot make him think? She does not like me; and she
is never quite happy or at her ease when I am with her. She had been
growing tired of Thornleigh for some time when the winter began; and
she looked so pale and ill, that my father got anxious about her.
The doctor here treated her in the usual stereotyped way, and made
very light of her ailments, but recommended change of air and scene.
Papa proposed going to Scarborough; but somehow or other Augusta
contrived to change Scarborough into Paris, and they are to spend
the winter and spring there, and perhaps go on to Germany in the
summer. At first papa was very anxious to take me with them; but
Augusta dropped some little hints--it would interrupt my studies, and
unsettle me, and so on. You know I am rather proud, Mary, so you can
imagine I was not slow to understand her. I said I would much prefer
to stay at Thornleigh, and proposed immediately that you should come
to me and be my companion, and help me on with my studies.'

'My dearest, how good of you to wish that!'

'It was not at all good. I think you are the only person in the
world who really cares for me, now that I have lost papa--for I have
lost him, you see, Mary; that becomes more obvious every day. Well,
dear, I had a hard battle to fight. Mrs. Darrell said you were
absurdly young for such a position, and that I required a matronly
person, able to direct and protect me, and take the management of
the house in her absence, and so on; but I said that I wanted
neither direction nor protection; that the house wanted no other
management than that of Mrs. Bunce the housekeeper, who has managed
it ever since I was a baby; and that if I could not have Mary
Crofton, I would have no one at all. I told papa what an
indefatigable darling you were, and how conscientiously you would
perform anything you promised to do. So, after a good deal of
discussion, the matter was settled; and here we are, with the house
all to o