"'Tis ever his way to say less than he feels," replied Walter. "The others are hot enough. But I am forgetting my trust," he added, turning to me with a grave smile. "My grief makes me but a faithless messenger. I have letters for you, Mrs. Merton, which Mrs. Carey received in a packet from her son, and prayed me to deliver." So saying he took out a packet and put it into my hands. "And I am forgetting, too," said his mother; "you have had no supper." "I have tasted nothing since morning, save a cold morsel at Dame Howell's, where we stopped to feed the horses," replied Walter. "Margaret, will you order supper?" asked Madam. "You see," she added, smiling, as I rose to obey, "I treat you as a daughter." I could have boxed my own ears worse than I did my Lord Saville's for the burning blush which mantled my face at these simple words. Mr. Corbet smiled in his sudden fashion, which makes me always think of the shining out of the sun from behind a cloud, and repeated some lines of poetry in Italian, for which I was none the wiser. I ordered his supper (and I might have spared the pains, for old Mrs. Prudence had it already prepared, and was nowise pleased, I could see, at my interference), and then escaped to my room to read my letters. They were both pleasant and painful. Mother and the children are well, and everything goes on comfortably at home. Mother says that many of the farmers and neighboring gentry have sent her presents of fruit, honey, and the like, as they used to do when my father was alive; and she hath wool and flax enough to keep her wheel going in all her spare minutes. Eunice hath learned to spin flax, and sends me a sample of her thread, which is very fair, but Lois cannot manage it. However, she hath learned to write nicely, and my mother says Jacky is growing a good boy, and a great help to her, and does well at his books. Richard has an increase of wages, and is in great liking with his master. The disagreeable part is that Felicia has written to mother, saying she has heard a very bad account of me from one of the ladies of the family, and begs mother to advise me to hold my tongue and keep to my own place, with other such matters. Mother says she does not regard the news, knowing so well the quarter from whence it comes, but I can see that it troubles her. The next day we were all busy in preparing for Walter's journey to London. Betty was made happy by being allowed to help make some gingerbread and biscuits. The servants all pet her and make much of her, and she goes about the house freely wherever she likes, and is as one of the family, which is a great deal better than being confined to one room. I fear she will feel the change greatly when she goes home again. A little before sunset I was in the garden, whither Madam had sent me to gather some early apples for supper when Walter joined me. "I fear my mother lays too much upon you," said he, bending down with his strong arm the bough I was striving to reach.