One pain she had. Good old Mrs. Nugent was rapidly decaying, and she shared with all her loving heart in the grief this was to Mary and to Miss Headworth, and longed to help them in their nursing. She would not grieve Nuttie by dwelling constantly on the bad accounts, and the girl hardly attended to them in the tumult of occupations; and so at last, when the final tidings came in the second week in July, they were an absolute shock to Nuttie, and affected her as the first grief sometimes does. Mrs. Nugent was really the first person of her own intimate knowledge who had died, and in the excited state in which she was, the idea of the contrast between her own occupations and Mary's was so dreadful to her that she wept most bitterly, with the sobs of childhood, such as she really did not know how to restrain. It was an unfortunate day, for it was one of the few on which Mr. Egremont wanted to take out his ladies. There was to be a great garden-party at Richmond, given by one of his former set, who had lately whitewashed himself by marrying a very fast and fashionable lady. Nuttie had heard strong opinions on the subject at Lord Kirkaldy's; but her father was quite elated at being in a position to countenance his old friends. Alice, in the midst of her sorrow, recollected this with consternation. 'My dear, my dear, hush! You must stop yourself! Remember we have to go out.' 'Go--out,' cried Nuttie, her sobs arrested by very horror. 'You wouldn't go--!' 'I am afraid your father would be very much vexed--' 'Let him! It is a horrid wicked place to go to at all; and now--when dear, dear old Mrs. Nugent is lying there--and--' The crying grew violent again, and in the midst in walked Mr. Egremont with an astonished 'What is all this?' 'We have lost one of our dear kind old friends at Micklethwayte,' said Alice, going towards him; 'dear old Mrs. Nugent,' and she lifted up her tear-stained face, which he caressed a little and said, 'Poor old body;' but then, at a sob, 'Can't you stop Ursula from making such a row and disfiguring herself? You must pick up your looks, Edda, for I mean you to make a sensation at Jerningham's.' 'Oh, Alwyn, if you could let us stay at home! Mrs. Nugent was so good to us, and it does seem unkind--' The tears were in her eyes again. 'Nonsense!' he said impatiently. 'I promised Jerningham, and it is absurd to have you shutting yourself up for every old woman at Micklethwayte.' Thereupon Ursula wiped away her tears, and stood up wrathful before him. 'I am not going,' she said. 'Oh, indeed!' he returned in a tone that made her still more angry. 'Hein'! a French ejaculation which he had the habit of uttering in a most exasperating manner. 'No,' she said. 'It is scarcely a place to which we even ought to be asked to go, and certainly not when--' 'Do you hear that, Mrs. Egremont?' he asked. 'Oh, Nuttie, Nuttie, dear!' she implored; 'don't.'