The little creature looked so subdued and moped in the miserable atmosphere that I was full of pity for her, so I showed her a new skipping rope that I had bought on my way, and bade her ask her aunt Susan's permission to go out and play.
The child's dull eyes brightened in a moment.

'May I go out, Aunt Phoebe ?' she asked breathlessly.
'Yes, go if you like,' was the somewhat ungracious answer.
'She is glad enough to get away from me,' she muttered, when Kitty had shut the door gently behind her.

'Children have no heart; she is an ungrateful, selfish little thing; but they are all that; we clothe her and feed her, and it is little we get out of her in return; and Susan is working her fingers to the bone for the two of us.' I took no notice of this outburst, and commenced clearing away the medicine-bottles to make room for my basket of chrysanthemums and ivy-leaves.

Uncle Max had procured them for me, but I had no idea as I arranged them that they had come from Gladwyn.
Phoebe watched my movements very gloomily; she evidently disapproved of the whole proceeding.

I carried out the bottles to Miss Locke, and begged her to throw them away: 'they are of no use to her,' I observed.
'Mr.Hamilton intends to send her a new mixture, and this array of half-emptied phials is simply absurd: it is just a whim.