Soon after tea, Mary Ann went to bed, but Tom favoured us with his company and conversation till eight.

After he was gone, Mrs.Bloomfield further enlightened me on the subject of her children's dispositions and acquirements, and on what they were to learn, and how they were to be managed, and cautioned me to mention their defects to no one but herself.

My mother had warned me before to mention them as little as possible to _her_, for people did not like to be told of their children's faults, and so I concluded I was to keep silence on them altogether.

About half-past nine, Mrs.Bloomfield invited me to partake of a frugal supper of cold meat and bread.

I was glad when that was over, and she took her bedroom candlestick and retired to rest; for though I wished to be pleased with her, her company was extremely irksome to me; and I could not help feeling that she was cold, grave, and forbidding--the very opposite of the kind, warm-hearted matron my hopes had depicted her to be..