"We did have a ball here once," said Lady Amelia, "when Brotherton came of age. I can just remember it." "Has it never been used since?" asked Mary. "Never," said Lady Sarah. "Sometimes when it's rainy we walk up and down for exercise. It is a fine old house, but I often wish that it were smaller. I don't think people want rooms of this sort now as much as they used to do. Perhaps a time may come when my brother will make Manor Cross gay again, but it is not very gay now. I think that is all, Miss Tallowax." "It's very fine;--very fine indeed," said Miss Tallowax, shivering. Then they all trooped back into the morning room which they used for their daily life. The old lady when she had got back into the brougham with her nephew, the Dean, was able to express her mind freely. "I wouldn't live in that house, Henry, not if they was to give it me for nothing." "They'd have to give you something to keep it up with." "And not then, neither. Of course it's all very well having a bed that Queen Elizabeth slept in." "Or didn't sleep in." "I'd teach myself to believe she did. But dear me, that isn't everything. It nearly gave me the horrors to look at it. Room after room,--room after room,--and nobody living in any of them." "People can't live in more than a certain number of rooms at once, aunt." "Then what's the use of having them? And don't you think for the daughters of a Marchioness they are a little what you'd call--dowdy?" "They don't go in for dress much." "Why, my Jemima at home, when the dirty work is done, is twice smarter than Lady Sarah. And, Henry,--don't you think they're a little hard upon Mary?" "Hard upon her;--how?" The Dean had listened to the old woman's previous criticisms with a smile; but now he was interested and turned sharply round to her. "How hard?" "Moping her up there among themselves; and it seemed to me they snubbed her whenever she spoke." The Dean had not wanted his aunt's observation to make him feel this. The tone of every syllable addressed to his girl had caught his ear. He had been pleased to marry her into so good a family. He had been delighted to think that by means of his prosperity in the world his father's grand-daughter might probably become a peeress. But he certainly had not intended that even for such a reward as that his daughter should become submissive to the old maids at Manor Cross. Foreseeing something of this he had stipulated that she should have a house of her own in London; but half her time would probably be spent in the country, and with reference to that half of her time it would be necessary that she should be made to understand that as the wife of Lord George she was in no respect inferior to his sisters, and that in some respects she was their superior. "I don't see the good of living in a big house," continued Miss Tallowax, "if all the time everything is to be as dull as dull." "They are older than she is, you know."