Mrs. Jellyby, sitting in quite a nest of waste paper, drank coffee all the evening, and dictated at intervals to her eldest daughter. She also held a discussion with Mr. Quale; of which the subject seemed to be--if I understood it--the Brotherhood of Humanity; and gave utterance to some beautiful sentiments. I was not so attentive an auditor as I might have wished to be, however, for Peepy and the other children came flocking about Ada and me in a corner of the drawing-room to ask for another story: so we sat down among them, and told them, in whispers, Puss in Boots and I don't know what else, until Mrs. Jellyby, accidentally remembering them, sent them to bed. As Peepy cried for me to take him to bed, I carried him up-stairs; where the young woman with the flannel bandage charged into the midst of the little family like a dragoon, and overturned them into cribs. After that, I occupied myself in making our room a little tidy, and in coaxing a very cross fire that had been lighted, to burn; which, at last, it did, quite brightly. On my return down stairs, I felt that Mrs. Jellyby looked down upon me rather, for being so frivolous; and I was sorry for it; though, at the same time, I knew that I had no higher pretensions. It was nearly midnight before we could find an opportunity of going to bed; and even then we left Mrs. Jellyby among her papers drinking coffee, and Miss Jellyby biting the feather of her pen. "What a strange house!" said Ada, when we got up-stairs. "How curious of my cousin Jarndyce to send us here!" "My love," said I, "it quite confuses me. I want to understand it, and I can't understand it at all." "What?" asked Ada, with her pretty smile. "All this, my dear," said I. "It _must_ be very good of Mrs. Jellyby to take such pains about a scheme for the benefit of Natives--and yet--Peepy and the housekeeping!" Ada laughed: and put her arm about my neck, as I stood looking at the fire; and told me I was a quiet, dear, good creature, and had won her heart. "You are so thoughtful, Esther," she said, "and yet so cheerful! and you do so much, so unpretendingly! You would make a home out of even this house." My simple darling! She was quite unconscious that she only praised herself, and that it was in the goodness of her own heart that she made so much of me! "May I ask you a question?" said I, when we had sat before the fire a little while. "Five hundred," said Ada. "Your cousin, Mr. Jarndyce. I owe so much to him: Would you mind describing him to me?" Shaking back her golden hair, Ada turned her eyes upon me with such laughing wonder, that I was full of wonder, too--partly at her beauty, partly at her surprise. "Esther!" she cried. "My dear!" "You want a description of my cousin, Jarndyce?" "My dear, I never saw him." "And _I_ never saw him!" returned Ada. Well, to be sure!