The next morning, when Clara arose, she was informed by a servant that breakfast was ready, who at the same time requested her to excuse “master and missus, as they were too much fatigued with their journey to come down.” Accordingly, Clara descended to an elegantly furnished breakfast-room, which, however, was extremely cold, on account of the very small fire; and the handsome furniture seemed much tarnished by the children, and the breakfast-table was much disordered, as is always the case when, as they did on this occasion, any members of the family take their breakfast in their own room. No one was at the breakfast-table but the two eldest children, whose company was not very agreeable, as they did nothing but quarrel with each other, and call fretfully to the servants for articles which were not on the table; and during her solitary meal Clara could but compare the pleasant breakfast-room at Primrose Cottage, with its neat carpet of domestic manufacture, its snowy curtains, and its blazing fire, with the cold and comfortless apartment in which she now sat; nor could she avoid drawing a like comparison between her own dear mother’s quiet and cheerful neatness, and the sweet-tempered voices of her little brother and sister, with her cousin’s careless self-indulgence, and the fretful ill temper of her children; yet, while Clara made these comparisons, not very flattering to her cousin, she also reflected that Mrs. Cleveland had just returned from a journey; and it was natural to suppose that the house would be in some confusion, and the children tired, and in consequence fretful, immediately upon their return. CHAPTER III. But I was a gay and a thoughtless girl, And I cast them all away, And gathered the dandelion buds, And the wild grapes gadding spray. BALLAD. “Clara, my love,” said Mrs. Cleveland one morning to our heroine, “you have now been here for some weeks, and have received several calls, not half so many though as you would have, had I the industry to return visits that I owe to some of the most agreeable of my acquaintances; however, we will to-morrow return those which have been paid; and do, my dear, wear the new silk which you thought me so extravagant in making you purchase, merely because, like a little country girl that you are, you thought that it did not accord with your means.” To this proposal Clara readily acceded, but could not avoid thinking that her cousin might have exerted herself sufficiently to return the calls she mentioned, if it were only on her account. Accordingly, on the following morning Clara, dressed with much care, descended to the parlor, looking beautifully. “Dear me, Clara,” exclaimed Mrs. Cleveland, “how charmingly you are dressed, are you going out?” “Why, my dear Florence, have you forgotten our arrangement to make calls this morning.”