"Will he remain with you?"

"He cannot. His business is large and increasing. He can afford but

this one fortnight vacation."

"How do you expect to get along without him?"

"I expect my dear old aunt to come often and see me," said Mabel

affectionately, parrying the catechism "Clara suggested, of her own

accord, when the extension of my visit was discussed, that you

should be invited to be with me late in April--and I don't want you

to refuse. Do you understand, and mean to be complaisant? You are

all the mother I have ever known, auntie."

"My lamb! you need not fear lest I shall not improve every

opportunity of seeing and comforting you. I shall return a civil and

grateful reply to Mrs. Aylett's invitation, for your sake! and for

the same reason try and remember, while I remain her guest, that her

right to be and to reign at Ridgeley is superior to yours or mine."

The good lady was not to be harshly censured if she now and then, in

private confabulation with her favorite, let fall a remark which was

the reverse of complimentary to her niece-in-law. Mabel's marriage

was the signal for a radical reorganization of the Ridgeley domestic

establishment, by which Mrs. Sutton was reduced from the busy,

responsible situation of housekeeper to the unenviable one of

unnoticed and unconsulted supernumerary.

"Not that I wish you to desert your old quarters, still less to feel

like a stranger with us," said Mrs. Aylett graciously, while she

affixed shining brass labels to the keys of closets, sideboards, and

store-rooms--the keys Aunt Rachel could distinguish from one

another, and all others in the world, in the darkest night, without

any labels whatever; which had grown smooth and bright by many

years' friction of her nimble fingers. "But Mr. Aylett wishes me to

assume the real, as well as nominal, government of the

establishment"--Mrs. Aylett was fond of the polysyllable as

conveying better than any other term she could employ the grandeur

of her position as Baroness of Ridgeley. "He insists that the

servants are growing worthless and refractory under the rule of so

many. Hereafter--this is his law, not mine--hereafter, those

attached to the house department are to come to me about their

orders, and the plantation workmen to him. I shall undoubtedly have

much trouble in curing the satellites appointed to me of their

irregular habits, and reducing them to something resembling system;

but Winston's extreme dissatisfaction with the anarchy that

prevailed under the ancien regime moves me to the undertaking."




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