-with a feeble attempt at a laugh, I said, 'My hands are so
benumbed with the cold that I can scarcely handle my knife and
fork.'

'I daresay you would find it cold,' replied she with a cool,
immutable gravity that did not serve to reassure me.

When the ceremony was concluded, she led me into the sitting-room
again, where she rang and sent for the children.

'You will find them not very far advanced in their attainments,'
said she, 'for I have had so little time to attend to their
education myself, and we have thought them too young for a
governess till now; but I think they are clever children, and very
apt to learn, especially the little boy; he is, I think, the flower
of the flock--a generous, noble-spirited boy, one to be led, but
not driven, and remarkable for always speaking the truth. He seems
to scorn deception' (this was good news). 'His sister Mary Ann
will require watching,' continued she, 'but she is a very good girl
upon the whole; though I wish her to be kept out of the nursery as
much as possible, as she is now almost six years old, and might
acquire bad habits from the nurses. I have ordered her crib to be
placed in your room, and if you will be so kind as to overlook her
washing and dressing, and take charge of her clothes, she need have
nothing further to do with the nursery maid.'

I replied I was quite willing to do so; and at that moment my young
pupils entered the apartment, with their two younger sisters.
Master Tom Bloomfield was a well-grown boy of seven, with a
somewhat wiry frame, flaxen hair, blue eyes, small turned-up nose,