This letter was received by Mrs. Peters at the breakfast-table, round which were assembled three daughters, one son, and her husband. The lady read it through in silence, cast her eyes rapidly over it a second time, and then handed it over to her spouse with an air of some solemnity, though something very like a smile passed across her features at the same moment. Mr. Peters also read the letter, but not like his lady, in silence. "Very kind of her indeed!... Poor dear lady!... a true mourner, that's plain enough to be seen.... She must be an excellent good woman, my dear, this widow of poor Barnaby; and I'm heartily glad she is coming among us. Your aunt Barnaby's coming, girls, and I hope you'll all behave so as to make her love you.... Is there any objection, Margaret, to the children's seeing this letter?" "None at all," replied the lady ... "excepting...." "Excepting what, my dear?... I am sure it is a letter that would do her honour anywhere, and I should be proud to read it on the exchange.... What do you mean by excepting?" "It is no matter.... The girls and I can talk about it afterwards, ... and James, I think, will understand it very clearly at once." "Understand it?... to be sure he will.... I never read a better letter, or one more easily understood, in my life.--Here, James, read it aloud to your sisters." The young man obeyed, and read it very demurely to the end, though, more than once, his laughing blue eye sent a glance to his mother that satisfied her she was right in her estimate of his acuteness. "That's an aunt worth having, isn't it?..." said old Peters, standing up, and taking his favourite station on the hearth-rug, with his back to the grate, though no fire was in it.... "Now I hope we shall have no airs and graces, because she comes from a remote part of the country, but that you will one and all do your best to make her see that you are worthy of her favour." "I will do all I can to shew myself a dutiful and observant nephew.... But don't you think, sir, that 'the lady doth protest too much?'" "Oh! but she'll keep her word," ... replied his mother, laughing. "Keep her word?... to be sure she will, poor lady! She is broken-hearted and broken-spirited, as it's easy to see by her letter," observed the worthy Mr. Peters; "and I do hope, wife, that you will be very kind to her." "And where shall I tell her to drive, Mr. Peters?" "To the York hotel, my dear, I should think." "Do you know that I rather fancy she expects we should ask her to come here?" "No!... Well, that did not strike me. Let me see the letter again.... But it's no matter; whether she does or does not it may be quite as well to do it; ... and she says she likes to save her money, poor thing." The father and son then set off to walk to Bristol, and Mrs. Peters and her three daughters were left to sit in judgment on the letter, and then to answer it.