did, my dear, I dare say it was nothing worse than all of you
have thought in turn," saith my Aunt Kezia, drily. "Hester, you will go
to bed as soon as the dark comes. Take your book, Cary; and remember,
my dear, whenever you write in it again, that God is looking at every
word you write."

Hatty made a horrid face at me behind my Aunt Kezia's back; but I don't
believe she really cared anything about it. She went to bed, of course;
and it is dark now by half-past five. But she was not a bit daunted,
for I heard her singing as she lay in bed, "Fair Rosalind, in woful
wise," [Note 2.] and afterwards, "I ha'e nae kith, I ha'e nae kin."
[Note 3.] If Father had heard that last, my Aunt Kezia would have had
to forgive her and let her off the rest of her sentence.

I have found a new hiding-place for my book, where I do not think Hatty
will find it in a hurry. But when I sit down to write now, my Aunt
Kezia's words come back to me with an awful sound. "God is looking at
every word you write!" I suppose it is so: but somehow I never rightly
took it in before. I hardly think I should have written some words if I
had. Was that what my Aunt Kezia meant?

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Note 1. This and similar expressions are Northern provincialisms.

Note 2.

"Fair Rosalind, in woful wise,
Six hearts has bound in thrall;
As yet she undetermined lies
Which she her spouse shall call."

Note 3. Perhaps the most plaintive and poetical of all the popular
Jacobite ballads.

CHAPTER TWO.

TAWNY EYES.

"She has two eyes so soft and brown,
Take care!
She gives a side-glance and looks down,--
Beware! Beware!
Trust her not,
She is fooling thee!"

LONGFELLOW.

Here they all are at last, and the house is as full as it will hold.
The Bracewells came first in their great family coach and four--
Charlotte and Amelia and a young friend whom they had with them. Her
name is Cecilia Osborne, and she is such a genteel-looking girl! She
moves about, not languidly like Amelia, but in such a graceful, airy way
as I never saw. She has dark hair, nearly black, and brown eyes with a
sort of tawny light in them,--large eyes which gleam out on you just
when you are not expecting it, for she generally looks down. Amelia
appears more listless and affected than ever by the side of her, and
Charlotte's hoydenish romping seems worse and more vulgar.

The Dru