Rachel was confined to bed with a cold.

The girls, who had hoped for a sight of her, were disappointed.
And so the days went on, till it happened that I went to stay at the Hall.

I had received two or three invitations, and had always found an excuse to stay away.

At last it seemed ungracious to stay away any longer, and I went.
How the house was changed since the quiet time of our "reading days," when the solitary wreath of smoke went up from Mrs.Beatty's chimney, and the echo of one's step on the stone stair rang round the gallery above! Now the hall, that had used to look so wide and chilly with its grim ornaments of busts of authors, was decorated with flowers from the hothouse, and cheered by a blazing fire.

A soft murmur of prosperity was heard throughout the house, as if Luxury were gliding about in her velvet slippers, giving orders in her modulated voice, and breathing her perfumed breath into all the corners.