“Angry? Oh! no, no. I love you even more when you tell me I have not done right; for I feel that you are so true, and you say it so gently, just as my papa does.” “Well to be sure!” Matilda said; “to _like_ to be told that one is not good, I can never get up to that; I don’t like at all to be told I am not good; I would rather say it of myself than that others should say it; indeed, it comforts me sometimes to say it all out. Selina, do you know that at this very moment I am not good?” “Yes, I do know,--you were glad when I said Leila had been wrong too.” “And is that all?” Matilda inquired. “No, not quite all; you were disappointed when you found it was so small a fault.” “Oh, Selina! it is too bad in you to say that; you are glad when you find people are good, and like yourself, and I cannot help being rather glad also, when I find people a little like myself, though I am not good; but you are getting into a way of seeing me through and through; you must not do that, or you will see a great many things to frighten you; at least, please don’t begin to-day, when we were to have been so merry; but do you know what I think is going to happen; something that won’t make us merry at all,--and yet I shall be so curious to see her.” “See _whom_?” both the others exclaimed; “what do you mean, Matilda?” “I mean that we are going to get a governess; that is, that I think, perhaps, we are to get one.” “And why do you think so?” Selina asked. “Because when I went into the drawing-room with one of the parcels, (mamma’s blotting-book, you know,) I heard Uncle Howard say, ‘Yes, I certainly do see the advantage of having a governess; _but_----’ and then I put down the parcel very slowly, that I might hear more; but mamma said, ‘Matilda, don’t linger in the room, for we are engaged at present, and wish to be alone.’ So, you know, I was obliged to be off very quick; do you think you will like it Selina?--to be sure, it won’t be so bad for you, but it will be bad enough for poor me, with all my scrapes; and yet I should like to see what sort of a face she has got, though I am quite sure I shall not like it.” “But perhaps the governess is for _me_,” Leila said, in a sorrowful tone; then added, “and I shall never be alone with my papa any more.” “No, no,” Matilda eagerly exclaimed; “don’t vex yourself, Leila. Don’t put on that sorrowful face; I am sure the governess is for us; for once before I heard mamma say something about it to papa,--it was one day when she said I was unmanageable, and you know you are never unmanageable.” “If you mean that I never am very bad, you are mistaken; you don’t know all the things I do sometimes, and wish to do.”