MY MOTHER'S DIAMONDS. 66 CHAPTER I. A MYSTERIOUS ANNOUNCEMENT. 'Where summer light is strongest thrown No perfect day is born on earth Without a farewell tear." "SHE is a rock of sense." "But a rock is a very hard thing, Rachel." "And you are very hard to please, let me tell you, Richard." "I hope not. Simplicity satisfies me. That is simple enough, surely?" If "those that live in glass houses should not throw stones," those that stand at open windows should not speak loud. I think the proverb ought certainly to be improved upon so far, since there is not even the transparent protection of the glass to avert risk in the latter case. > The sash of the bow-window in our pretty drawing room at Crystal Lodge had been thrown up, and I was returning from the garden with some freshlygathered flowers, when the foregoing remarks reached me. Though no name had been mentioned, I knew by an instinct whom they concerned, and with the blossoms half scattered from my hold, I sprang impulsively into the room. “Oh, papa, you are not going to give us a governess?" I exclaimed, running up to the gentleman. "Give is not exactly the word, Ellie," he rejoined quietly. "It will cost me something, and if I make a sacrifice you should be ready to yield up your wishes in return." I felt my cheeks flushing all over. I divined at once the quarter whence the interference came, and I cast a reproachful glance on Aunt Rachel. She was my father's maiden sister, his senior by six or seven years, and she endeavoured to rule him as well as everybody else. It seemed to me hard enough that both father and mother should be leaving us for a time without the added trial of an unwelcome visitant. Their intended departure for New York for an absence of two or three months had only been announced to me the evening before, and I felt nothing of freedom at the thought, only a sense of solitary sadness. I was the eldest of six children, but my responsibilities scarcely weighed upon me when my dear mother was amongst us to direct and determine all. My father, Mr. Wynham was a gentleman of small independent means, and for some years he had abandoned his profession as a physician, and lived with us quietly in the pretty country place which was our present home. He taught the boys himself, and my mother was the only instructress of my sisters and myself. There was something mysterious about the projected visit which disturbed me now. It was sudden and secret, at least so it seemed to me, though possibly I was not taken as early into the confidence of my elders as I would have wished. Aunt Rachel, unluckily, was on the scene, and I knew that she counselled the discipline of tasks and tuition in our parents' absence. This might be all very well for the younger ones, but not if it involved a restraint over me. I had set a plan before my mind which this suggestion of hers wholly interfered with. I was ambitious of proving a certain talent for rule which I flattered myself I possessed. Doing little as yet, my abilities only extended themselves to criticism of others; and thus my experience being limited, my confidence was unbounded. I was fond of management, and eager for authority, and that either would be misplaced in my hands never occurred to my buoyant views. With my seventeen years of wisdom and an untold amount of self-reliance, I was, in my own eyes, the proper person to be placed over the household. "Father," I pursued now, children with me while you are "please leave the away. I am certain |