And Aunt Mary, though she would have been ashamed to own it, loved Magdalen.

She intended that Magdalen should live with her some day at the Towers, as an unpaid companion, when Sir John and Aunt Aggie had entered into peace.
"And your father," continued Aunt Mary.

"Did he get my letter?
I intend to have a serious conversation with him after tea." "Father has this moment come in, and he asked me to tell you that he had business letters which he is obliged to write." "I know what _that_ means." "Oh! Mary!" interpolated Aunt Aggie eagerly.

"You forget that Algernon always, from the time he was a young man, left his letters to the last moment.

All the Bellairs do." The Bellairs had other unique family characteristics, as peculiar to themselves as their choice of time for grappling with their correspondence, which Aunt Aggie was never tired of quoting.