I always dreaded coming in contact with her rudeness; there was no sympathy in our natures, and yet I experienced a sensation of relief while listening to her bubbling and effervescent nonsense.

My mind had been kept on so high a tone, there was a strain, a tension, of which I was hardly conscious till the bowstring was slackened.

Besides, she was associated with the recollections of Grandison Place,--she was a young person of my own sex, and she could talk to me of Mrs.Linwood, and Edith, and the friends of my rural life.

So I tried to become reconciled to the visitation, and to do the honors of a hostess with as good a grace as possible.
Ernest took refuge in the library from her wild rattling, and then she poured into my ear the idle gossip she had heard the evening before.
"It never will do," she cried, catching a pair of scissors from my work-box, and twirling them on the ends of her fingers at the imminent risk of their flying into my eyes,--"you must put a stop to this Darby and Joan way of living,--you will be the byword of the fashionable world,--I heard several gentlemen talking about you last night.

They said your husband was so exclusive and jealous he would not let the sun look upon you if he could help it,--that he had the house lighted through the roof, so that no one could peep at you through the windows.
Oh! I cannot repeat half the ridiculous things they said, but I am sure your ears must have burned from the compliments they paid you, at least those who have had the good-luck to catch a glimpse of your face.