Nor was it idle sympathy she felt; that same day she sought the residence of Lady Helen.
Scarcely ever did she enter that house without being struck by the melancholy pervading it.

Wrapped in her own pleasures, her own desires and amusements, Annie never cast one thought on her mother, whose declining health it would have been her duty to tend and soothe; indeed she scarcely ever entered her room, and believing her parent's ailments were all fancy, made it a rule to take no notice of them.

Cecil liked not gloom and quiet, and his fashionable cousins occupied almost all his time.

He could not comprehend, much less return the deep affection his mother felt for him; and Lilla, whose naturally warm heart and right principles would have made her an affectionate attendant on her mother's couch, was seldom at home to perform her part.

But already had Lady Helen felt the difference a year's residence with Mrs.Douglas had made in her younger girl; already her indolent nature felt the comfort of her presence, and bitterly regretted when her short vacations were at an end, for then she was indeed alone.
On being admitted, Mrs.Hamilton fancied somewhat eagerly, the first person she encountered at Lady Helen's was her young friend, clad, it seemed, for walking, with traces of anxiety and sorrow written on her countenance.
"The very person I was about to seek," she exclaimed, in a voice of intense relief, springing down the stairs to reach her friend.