"Now that's what I call hospitality!" exclaimed Mrs. MacClaverhouse; "but Mr. Mountjoy always was so magnificent in his way of doing things. 'That man has a regal mind,' I used to say to my husband, after one of the Mountjoys' Calcutta dinner-parties. And she's a good warm-hearted soul, though there's not much in her. There's nothing pays so well as a long visit, Cecil; and if the Mountjoys press us to stay till Christmas, I shall stay; for skipping about from one house to another eats into so much money in the way of travelling-expenses and servants' fees, that you might almost as well stop at home." Cecil could only acquiesce in her aunt's arrangement. What was she but the handmaiden of her kindly protectress, bound to go wherever the lively dowager chose to take her, and to be pleased and merry at the will of others? She was very tired of her life. Driving through pleasant suburbs in the phantom chariot, she looked with sad yearning eyes at tiny cottages, enshrined in tiny gardens, and thought how simple and placid existence might be in such modest habitations. "What happiness to be one's own mistress!" she thought, "never to be obliged to smile when one is sad, or talk and laugh for the pleasure of other people. If my poor father had left me a hundred a-year I might have lived in such a cottage, with my books and piano, and a few birds and flowers. I might have been good to the poor, even; for it is so easy for poor people to help one another. I envy the dowdiest old maid who ever eked out her tiny income. I envy any one and every one who can live their own lives." But after indulging in such thoughts as these Cecil felt ashamed of the ingratitude involved in her mute repinings. Was not her kinswoman good and affectionate after her own sharp fashion? and was it not the dependant's duty to be pleased and satisfied with the home that sheltered her? Even if there was some sacrifice of freedom demanded from her, Cecil could have made that sacrifice without complaining, if the dowager would only have let her alone. But to refrain from interference with the business of other people was just one of those things which Mrs. MacClaverhouse could not do. She had set her heart upon her niece making a good marriage, and to that end she kept watch upon every eligible bachelor who came within her ken. It was in vain that Cecil protested against any thing like matrimonial scheming in her behalf. The dowager did not hesitate to remind her of the dull dead level of poverty that lay before her in the future.