She brightened again into great but subdued delight, when I said that some of the flowers she admired most, should be put aside to go to Ennerdale, and when I plucked a few pretty blossoms for her to put in her hair--they were too good for that, she said, and received them in her hands with a renewal of her first pleasure. Then we went into the drawing-room, and sat down once more, looking at each other. "Do you work much, cousin Hester?" asked Flora, timidly, "for, of course, not thinking that you would wish me to stay, I brought nothing with me to do. Will you let me have something? I am sure you think so much, that you like working; but for me, I am always with mamma, and when we are busy, she says I do get through so much talk. Let me work, please, cousin Hester, it is so pleasant for two people to work together." "I have got no work, Flora," said I, faltering a little. It was true enough, yet I had some little bits of embroideries in progress, which I did not like to show to her, or to any one, but only worked at in solitude and retirement, in my own room up-stairs. This time Flora sighed as she looked at me, and then looked round the room in quest of something else. "Do you play, cousin Hester? are you fond of music? I know great musicians have to practise such a great deal," she said, looking at me interrogatively, as if perhaps this might be a sufficient reason for my unaccountable disregard of village schools, and hot-house flowers and embroidery. For the moment, with her simple eye upon me, I felt almost ashamed for myself. "No, Flora, I never touch the piano," said I. Flora rose and drew softly towards me with humility and boldness. "Dear cousin Hester," said the innocent young girl, kneeling down upon a footstool beside me, and putting her pretty arm around my waist, "you are grieving very much and breaking your heart--oh! I am so very sorry for you! and I am not surprised indeed at all, for it is dreadful to think what such a loss must be; and no mamma to comfort you. But, cousin, dear, won't you try and take comfort? Mamma says it will do you harm to be so very sad--though I know," said Flora, leaning back upon my knee to look up into my face, and blushing all over her own as she spoke, "that something will make you very happy when the summer comes, for Alice told me so."