"I have no secrets from papa--what business has papa to have secrets from me! I consider myself insulted." "If you considered yourself properly reproved for not minding your own business," said the plain-spoken Miss Garth, "you would be a trifle nearer the truth.

Ah! you are like all the rest of the girls in the present day.

Not one in a hundred of you knows which end of her's uppermost." The three ladies entered the morning-room; and Magdalen acknowledged Miss Garth's reproof by banging the door.
Half an hour passed, and neither Mr.Vanstone nor his wife left the breakfast-room.

The servant, ignorant of what had happened, went in to clear the table--found his master and mistress seated close together in deep consultation--and immediately went out again.

Another quarter of an hour elapsed before the breakfast-room door was opened, and the private conference of the husband and wife came to an end.
"I hear mamma in the hall," said Norah.