For two or three days my mother was quite unwell, and I was of course with her most of the time, though I went out to walk two or three times with Mrs. Theo, who also showed me the house and pictures, which were very fine. As to Mrs. Martini, she never troubled herself about me in any way, and that was all I asked of her. "You must not mind Martha," said Theo to me one day, when she had very shortly declined an invitation to walk with us. "She goes on her own way for all any one else, and she is always busy." "What does she do?" I asked. "Oh, she reads a great deal, especially in divinity, and she sews for the poor and visits them very often. She does twice as much for them as I do, and yet I don't know how it is, they are always glad to see mother and me, and they do not seem ever pleased to see her. I think sometimes they do not like so much advice. Do you not think that may be it?" she asked, raising her pretty eyebrows, and looking at me reflectively. "Perhaps so," said I, with a smile, for I was much amused. "Then you do not give them advice?" "I, Cousin Vevette?" with an air of great astonishment. "How could I do that? I do not know half as much as they do. Why, what advice could I give those poor women about their households and their children, when I never brought up a child or cooked a dinner in all my life? I do sometimes just hint to them about washing a babe's face clean or mending its hose, but just in a pleasant talking kind of way, you know. And I must say they are usually ready to listen. But I never could go into their houses when they are at meals and remark upon their waste in eating fresh butter, or anything like that. Why, I should not like it myself, would you?" "Decidedly not!" I answered. "But I think it is pleasant to drop into cottages and talk with the women when they are at leisure, and play with the babes, don't you?" "Oh, yes, and to make christening frocks for them, and the like. Come, we will go and see the old folks at the almshouses." We spent three or four weeks very pleasantly at Stanton Court. My lord was fond of music, and took much pleasure in our singing and playing. My mother excused herself from returning visits, as her health was so delicate, but she was always in the parlor of an evening, to help my lady in entertaining her guests. I soon came to enjoy these evenings very much, nor was I at all averse to the attentions I received from my lord's young visitors. I had one letter from Andrew, written from Plymouth before he sailed. He told me he had hoped to bid me farewell in person, but that had been made impossible. His ship was to go up to Chatham, and he would write from thence so soon as he knew his destination; but he believed that he should go to the West and not to the East Indies after all.