"_I_ may, perhaps, for I am a great house-keeper; but for Anne and Lewis, nothing goes right if a week passes without two or three visits to the Tower." "Ay, Lewis, is it so?" said Mrs. Catherine. "I thought not I had kept the power, now that I am past threescore, of drawing to my dwelling gallants of your years." "I have not been at the Tower for a month," said Lewis, bluntly; "I mean I have been very much occupied." "As you should be," said Mrs. Catherine. "I am not seeking excuses, Lewis; I am but blythe that it is not my memory that is failing me--seeing I should like ill to suffer loss in that particular, till this world's affairs are out of my hands--be careful of your lawful business, Lewis, as becomes your years. If you were a good bairn, I might maybe do my endeavor to bring folk back with me, that your leisure would be better spent upon: in the meantime, I have a suit to your mother." Mrs. Ross looked astonished. "To me?" "Yes; this bairn Anne, Mrs. Ross, as you see, has been misbehaving herself. My own gray cheek, withered as it is, has stronger health upon it than is on her young one. I have a doctor of physic among my serving woman; I see no reason why I should not undertake to work cures as well as my neighbors--send her with me--I will bring her back free of her trouble." "Oh, I beg you will not refer to me," said Mrs. Ross, angrily. "Anne is quite able to judge for herself." "I beg your pardon, Madam. I say this bairn Anne has no call to judge for herself. Is it your pleasure that I should try my skill? I came to make my petition to you, and not to Anne." "She is an excessively unreasonable girl," said Mrs. Ross, tossing her head; "if you know how to manage her, it is more than I do. I assure you, Mrs. Catherine, Anne's conduct to me is of the most undutiful kind. She is a very foolish, unreasonable girl." Poor Anne had been laboring these three or four weeks to please her stepmother, as assiduously as any fagged governess or sempstress in the land. The honorable scars of the needle had furrowed her finger; she had been laboring almost as hardly, and to much better purpose than the greater portion of those "needlewomen, distressed or otherways," whose miserable work done for miserable wages attracts so much sympathy and benevolent exertion in these days. She was somewhat astonished at the undeserved accusation. If she did wander for long miles along the course of the Oran, it was in the dewy morning, before Mrs. Ross had left her room. If she did brood over her secret hope and sorrow, it was when Mrs. Ross was sullen or asleep. She said nothing in self-defence, but felt the injustice keenly, notwithstanding.