"Will you have the kindness to send word to your cousin that I should like to see her for a few minutes?" "O she can't come down?" "Why not?" "O she's in no condition. Mamma--mamma! Mr. Southwode wants to see Rotha." "I am very sorry!" said Mrs. Busby smoothly and calmly, turning again from the discourse she was carrying on,--"I have sent her to bed with a tumbler of hot lemonade." "What is the matter?" "A slight cold--nothing troublesome, I hope; but I thought best to take it in time. I do not want her studies to be interrupted." Mr. Southwode was powerless against this announcement, and thought his own thoughts, till Mrs. Busby drew him into the discussion which just then engaged her. Upon this busy talk presently came Antoinette, hatted and cloaked, and drawing on her gloves. Stood and waited. "Mr. Southwode--I am ready," she said, as he did not attend to her. "For the Minstrels?" said he, with that very unconcerned manner of his. "But, Miss Antoinette, would not your cousin like to go?" "She _can't_, you know. Where are your ears, Mr. Southwode? Mamma explained to you that she was in bed." "Then do you not agree with me, that it would be the kindest thing to defer our own pleasure until she can share it?" Antoinette flushed and coloured, and tears of disappointment came into her eyes. A little tinge rose in Mrs. Busby's cheeks too. "Go and take your cloak off," she said coldly. "And Antoinette, you had better see that your lessons for to-morrow morning are all ready."