"What carriage is that?... Whose servant is that upon the stairs?... You have not been letting the lodgings, I hope?" were the first words of the widow. "Oh! dear no, ma'am!" replied the maid; "everything is just as you left it." "Then who is that carriage waiting for?" "For a lady, ma'am, who is come to call on your young lady." "MY young lady!... unnatural hussy!... And what fine friends has she found out here, I wonder, to visit her?... Be they who they will, they shall hear my opinion of her." And with these words, Mrs. Barnaby mounted the last stair, and entered the room. The two unsnuffed tallow candles which stood on the table did not enable her at the first glance to recognize her aunt, who was wrapped in a long silk cloak, much unlike any garment she had ever seen her wear; but the sable figure of Agnes immediately caught her eye, and she stepped towards her with her arm extended, very much as if about to box her ears. But it seemed that the action was only intended to intimate that she was instantly to depart, for, with raised voice and rapid utterance, she said, "How comes it, girl, that I find you still here?... Begone!... Never will I pass another night under the same roof with one who could so basely desert a benefactress in distress!... And who may this be that you have got to come and make merry with you, while I ... and for your expenses too.... Whoever it is, they had better shew no kindness to you, ... or they will be sure to repent of it." Mrs. Barnaby then turned suddenly round to reconnoitre the unknown visiter. "Do you not know me, Mrs. Barnaby?" said Miss Compton demurely. "My aunt Betsy!... Good God! ma'am, what brought you here?" "I came to take this troublesome girl off your hands, Mrs. Barnaby: is not that kind of me?" "That's the plan, is it?" retorted the widow bitterly. "Now I understand it all. Instead of coming to comfort me in my misery, she was employing herself in coaxing another aunt to make a sacrifice of herself to her convenience. Take her; and when you are sick and sorry, she will turn her back upon you, as she has done upon me!" "Oh! do not speak so cruelly, aunt Barnaby!" cried Agnes, greatly shocked at having her conduct thus described to one whose love she so ardently wished to gain.... "Tell my aunt Compton what it was you asked of me, and let her judge between us."