le Roger and his sheep. On one side was a sort of
precipice, where the chalk had been dug away, and a rather extensive old
chalk pit formed a tolerable pond, by the assistance of the ditch at the
foot of a hedge. On the glassy surface already marked by many a sharply
traced circular line, the Sutton Leigh boys were careering, the younger
ones with those extraordinary bends, twists, and contortions to which
the unskilful are driven in order to preserve their balance. Frederick
and Henrietta stood on the brink, neither of them looking particularly
cheerful; but both turned gladly at the sight of the Busy Bee, and came
to meet her with eager inquiries for her papa.

She was a very welcome sight to both, especially Henrietta, who had from
the first felt almost out of place alone with all those boys, and
who hoped that she would be some comfort to poor Fred, who had been
entertaining her with every variety of grumbling for the last half-hour,
and perversely refusing to walk out of sight of the forbidden pleasure,
or to talk of anything else. Such a conversation as she was wishing for
was impossible whilst he was constantly calling out to the others, and
exclaiming at their adventures, and in the intervals lamenting his
own hard fate, scolding her for her slowness in dressing, which had
occasioned the delay, and magnifying the loss of his pleasure, perhaps
in a sort of secret hope that the temptation would so far increase as
to form in his eyes an excuse for yielding to it. Seldom had he shown
himself so unamiable towards her, and with great relief and satisfaction
she beheld her cousin descending the steep slippery path from the height
above, and while the cloud began to lighten on his brow, she thought to
herself, "It will be all right now, he is always happy with Busy Bee!"

So he might have been had Beatrice been sufficiently unselfish for once
to use her influence in the right direction, and surrender an amusement
for the sake of another; but to give up or defer such a pleasure as
skating with Alex never entered her mind, though a moment's reflection
might have shown her how much more annoying the privation would be
rendered by the sight of a girl fearlessly enjoying the sport from which
he was debarred. It would, perhaps, be judging too hardly to reckon
against her as a fault that her grandmamma could not bear to hear of
anything so "boyish," and had long ago entreated her to be more like a
young lady. There was no posi