It was that lady's first visit for years, and her advent on this occasion seemed to the girls to forebode some ill.

But her manner had undergone an extraordinary transformation.

Her spiteful tone was gone, and the look of sourness, which had often suggested to Liza her affinity to the plums that grew in her own garden, had given place to what seemed to be a look of extreme benevolence.
"It's slashy and cold, but I've come to see my old neighbor," she said.

"I'm sure I've suffered lang and sair ower her affliction, poor body." Without much show of welcome from Rotha, the three women went into Mrs.Ray's room and sat down.
"Poor body, who wad have thought it ?" said Mrs.Garth, putting her apron to her eye as she looked up at the vacant gaze in the eyes of the sufferer.

"I care not now how soon my awn glass may run out.