"Phoebe! what preposterous folly!" said Mrs Latrobe. "Well, child, you are a fool--that's as plain as a pikestaff; but--" "You're a fool!" came in a screech from the parrot's cage, followed by a burst of laughter. "But 'tis no use crying over spilt milk. If we have lost Mr Welles, we have lost him; and we must try for some one else. Oh dear, how hot it is! Phoebe, I wonder when you will have any sense. I do beseech you, my dear, never to play the same game with anyone else." "I hope, Mother," said Phoebe, gravely, "that I shall never have occasion." "What a lot of geese!" said the parrot. CHAPTER TWELVE. ENDS IN THE MAIDENS' LODGE. "Mother, Mother, up in Heaven, Stand up on the jasper sea, And be witness I have given All the gifts required of me." _Elizabeth Barrett Browning_. "Before these young gentlewomen come, Rhoda, I want a word with you." "Yes, Madam." "I am sure, my dear, that you have too much wit to object to what I am about to say." Rhoda had learned to dread this beginning, as it was generally the prelude to something disagreeable. But she was learning, also, to submit to disagreeable things. She only said, meekly, "Yes, Madam." "I suppose, my dear, you will have felt, like a maid of some parts and spirit as you are, that your dwelling any longer with me and Phoebe in this house would not be proper." "Not be proper!" Rhoda's cheek blanched. She had never recognised anything of the kind. Was she not only to lose her fortune, but to be turned out of her home? When would her calamities come to an end? "Not proper, Aunt Anne!--why not?" This was not altogether an easy question to answer with any reason but the real one, which last must not be told to Rhoda. Mrs Latrobe put on an air of injured astonishment. "My dear!--sure, you would not have me tell you that? No, no!--your own good parts, I am certain, must have assured you. Now, Rhoda, I wish, so far as is possible, to spare you all mortification. If you consider that it would be easier to you to support your altered fortunes elsewhere, I am very willing to put myself to some trouble to obtain for you a suitable service; or if, on the other hand, you have not this sensibility, then my Lady Betty's cottage is at your disposal when she leaves it. The time that these young gentlewomen are here will be enough to think over the matter. When they go, I shall expect your answer."