Thus ended the insurrection in Wetheral Castle, which even the infant appeared to enjoy, as it crowed, and nearly kicked itself out of her nurse's arms, when the tumult was loudest. She then predicted it would delight in stirring sounds, and become a fearless character. This _emeute_ produced serious results, which Lady Wetheral had not anticipated, but which ever succeeds to power wielded by weak and unsteady hands. Miss Anna Maria became gradually dictator, and maintained her opinions and determinations with such unshaken obstinacy, that her mother as gradually resigned her will, and submitted to the imperious dictates of her eldest daughter. Her mind was exclusively bent upon securing Tom Pynsent; and, in the anxious hope of forwarding her plans, she suffered her power to depart into other hands, and beheld her own children forming a strong party in opposition to all her expressed opinions. She lamented her weakness when too late, to Thompson. "The young ladies, Thompson, put me quite on the shelf, and oppose me in every thing. They will never marry properly. Anna Maria's hands are not so white as they were when I could insist upon her wearing gloves; and Julia's feet are getting extremely broad. She will insist upon walking in easy shoes. All my arrangements are useless; and it makes me miserable to find Sir John as lax as ever in his notions. What a thing he will make of that ugly little Christobel!" "Every one thinks, my lady, little Miss Chrissy will turn out a very fine child," said poor Thompson, who detested the new dynasty. "Nonsense, Thompson, don't tell me any thing called Christobel can be decent-looking; and, as I do not attend to her, I am sure her hands and feet will be unproducible, but I never trouble myself about it, for she is Sir John's pet; and men's pets are always masculine, coarse women. Perhaps, when Anna Maria is Mrs. Pynsent, she will introduce her sister to somebody who may not object to a coarse kind of wife; but, I confess, I have no hopes for a young woman called Christobel, and named, too, after a frightful spinster." This latter conversation took place on the eve of Anna Maria's introduction, five years subsequent to the rebellion which decided the downfall of Lady Wetheral's power, and transferred the sceptre into the hands of her children. The daily occurrences of the nursery are marked by sameness; there is little to vary its routine. Let us turn now to the period when the lives of the sisters began to take their colouring from the sentiments of their parents, and to suffer the trials and sorrows incidental to existence. CHAPTER II.