I was spared the trouble of answering, for Bessie seemed in too

great a hurry to listen to explanations; she hauled me to the

washstand, inflicted a merciless, but happily brief scrub on my face

and hands with soap, water, and a coarse towel; disciplined my head

with a bristly brush, denuded me of my pinafore, and then hurrying

me to the top of the stairs, bid me go down directly, as I was

wanted in the breakfast-room.

I would have asked who wanted me: I would have demanded if Mrs.

Reed was there; but Bessie was already gone, and had closed the

nursery-door upon me. I slowly descended. For nearly three months,

I had never been called to Mrs. Reed's presence; restricted so long

to the nursery, the breakfast, dining, and drawing-rooms were become

for me awful regions, on which it dismayed me to intrude.

I now stood in the empty hall; before me was the breakfast-room

door, and I stopped, intimidated and trembling. What a miserable

little poltroon had fear, engendered of unjust punishment, made of

me in those days! I feared to return to the nursery, and feared to

go forward to the parlour; ten minutes I stood in agitated

hesitation; the vehement ringing of the breakfast-room bell decided

me; I MUST enter.

"Who could want me?" I asked inwardly, as with both hands I turned

the stiff door-handle, which, for a second or two, resisted my

efforts. "What should I see besides Aunt Reed in the apartment?--a

man or a woman?" The handle turned, the door unclosed, and passing

through and curtseying low, I looked up at--a black pillar!--such,

at least, appeared to me, at first sight, the straight, narrow,

sable-clad shape standing erect on the rug: the grim face at the

top was like a carved mask, placed above the shaft by way of

capital.

Mrs. Reed occupied her usual seat by the fireside; she made a signal

to me to approach; I did so, and she introduced me to the stony

stranger with the words: "This is the little girl respecting whom I

applied to you."

HE, for it was a man, turned his head slowly towards where I stood,

and having examined me with the two inquisitive-looking grey eyes

which twinkled under a pair of bushy brows, said solemnly, and in a

bass voice, "Her size is small: what is her age?"

"Ten years."

"So much?" was the doubtful answer; and he prolonged his scrutiny

for some minutes. Presently he addressed me--"Your name, little

girl?"




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