Mrs. Sutton understood it all--the hurry and agitation of the

unlooked-for arrival; the faintness and prostration of the

consumptive; the restless night, and the well-meant but inefficient

ministrations of negroes in an establishment where the mistress had

been feeble for years, and was now chained to her room and chair by

paralysis.

"And Rosa was always an indolent flyabout in health; accustomed to

have a score of servants at her heels to pick up whatever she

dropped or threw aside," she said to herself. "My Mabel was a pink

of neatness and order compared with her. Dear me! here is a bottle

of oil, cracked, and an immense grease-spot in the front breadth of

a splendid silk dress! I hope these things do not annoy her as they

would me!"

Whether the universal disarray made Rosa uncomfortable or not, she

enjoyed the aspect of the tidy apartment, when her nurse brought her

noiseless labors to a close by exchanging her night-gown for a

flannel wrapper; putting clean linen upon her and the bed; combing

the tangled hair and washing her hands, wrists, and face in tepid

water, interfused with cologne.

"It prevents a sick person from taking cold when bathed, and

freshens her up wonderfully, I think," was her explanation of the

fragrant preparation.

"YOU freshen me more than all things else combined!" said Rosa,

gratefully. "Ah, auntie! how often I have thought of, and wished for

you this tedious and dismal winter! I used to spend entire weeks in

bed, attended by a horrid hired nurse, who took snuff and

drank--ugh! and snubbed and terrified me whenever I--as she

described it--'took a notion into my head;' that is, when I asked

for something she thought was too troublesome for her ladyship to

prepare, or wanted Fred to stay all night in my room, or sit by me

in the evening, and pet me. She 'couldn't bear to have men around,

cluttering up everything!' she would growl the instant his back was

turned, with a deal more of the same talk, until I was afraid to ask

him to take a seat the next time he came in. He was continually

bringing home baskets of fruit, and game, and bouquets for me. She

let me have the flowers, but she ate nine-tenths of the nice things

herself, I never suspecting her, and he was too delicate to ask if I

enjoyed his presents. At length he surprised her in the act of

devouring a bunch of hot-house grapes, for which he had paid almost

their weight in gold, and then all came to light, and he sent her

off in a hurry. Poor Fred, there were great tears in his eyes when

he learned what persecution I had undergone, rather than vex him by

complaints."




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