"Then take your une away to la lune, and take your à la and put it au bas, and take out your du for a walk in the rue, and as for the mon, it's a great deal too bon," went Lee and Bee when they were alone; one putting one thing, and one another, just as each thought of it; and the last sally, which happened to be Bee's, seeming to both so peculiarly funny, the laugh they gave at it made them for a moment almost happy.

They would purposely squeak their slate-pencils on their slates, put the wrong emphasis on words in their recitations, saying, "My name is Norval," "I come to bury Casar, not to praise him," and so on; they would dot the notes in their music that ought to have been straight notes; they would say Russia was next door to Prussia, and Norway was a doorway, and Scotland was a hotland, and Ireland was a fireland; they would ask why owe wasn't spelt o, saying they could have made much clearer English if they had been asked to, because they should have written i for eye, or else meye for my, or seye for sigh, they didn't care which, so long as everything was all alike and easy; they grew by little bit and little bit, in fact, so bold in their audacity, and so fearless of punishment, that Aunt Carly thought she must invent some new punishment to make them mind her.

They grew to enjoy mischief, too, because it was mischief that did harm to Aunt Carly; and they would not try to remedy it. For instance, they saw Lily, the white cat, upset some flower-pots off an ornamental shelf on the upper garden wall. They let the flower-pots lie.

"I daresay flowers grow best with their heads downwards at Little Dene," said Leonora.

For another instance. They saw Jet, the black cat, roll herself on a cluster of new green lilies; rubbing her head, hard and fast, into the sword-like leaves, snapping at her tail, with a snap that coiled her into a ring; then returning to her roll, and regularly roystering in the rub she gave of her back, with her feet kicking upwards, as a splendid finish off. They let her rub, and roll, and have her royster.

"Perhaps cats," Bee said, "do that always when they're the proper cats for a cats' show! "

They then saw Rachel carry off the wrong parcel, when she was told to walk behind her mistress to the draper's; they

saw Aunt Carly hold her book upside down, when she had forgotten to put on her spectacles; they saw the little dog laugh, and the cat play the fiddle, and the moon jump over the cow, and the spoon clatter after the dish, or whatever the right deeds were that those funny creatures have been performing for centuries; or, at least, if they had seen these things done, and they knew they would have been vexatious things to Aunt Carly, they would have helped to have got them done, and not have stopped them for love or money.

All the while, however, Aunt Carly saw this, although they thought they were doing it so naturally that the spirit in which they were doing it would never be discovered, and at last she hit upon the punishment that she was sure they would feel bitterly.

"You girls behave so badly together," she said, when they had been stumbling over the Falls of Dolore, as they would call it, instead of Lodore, "you behave, I may say, so shamefully together, that I shall separate you. You will meet at meals, and you will meet at lessons; because then I shall be with you, and I shall see that there is no evil cominunication between you to corrupt good manners. But I have had another bedroom got ready for you, Beatrice, so that you will no longer sleep together; and your exercise-time will be one in the afternoon and one in the evening, so that by no chance will you meet for talk or play. Indeed, I forbid a word to pass between you. And as you have driven me into this, take care

you don't drive me into more.”

Oh! the cruelty of it, the aggravation! It went like a dagger, and it quivered there, lacerating each young heart. "Bee!" cried Leonora, springing to Beatrice, and "Lee!" cried Beatrice, holding her close.

It only made more severity. Were they not wrong even in those words?

"Leonora Beatrice!" Aunt Carly cried, "I will have obedience !"

She did not get it, at the moment.

"Bee!" was Lee's cry still, in the full pain of her comprehension.

And "Lee!" went Beatrice, echoing her, with deep appeal. "This confirms me!" declared Aunt Carly. "This is my prophecy fulfilled. Leonora ! come with me!"

But Bee clung the closer, and Lee held her, and Lee lifted up her face, full of fury.

"How dare you call me from my sister!" she cried. "How dare you say you will keep us apart!"

Alas! Aunt Carly could not only say, she could do. With one action, she had wrested the two children from each other's arms; she had Leonora firmly in her grasp, and hurried her out of the room.

"There!" she cried, returning to little Beatrice, who was sobbing and shaking with her grief. "Let that be a lesson to you! Your sister will learn her task in the dining-room where I have safely put her. You will remain here."

Neither Beatrice nor Aunt Carly remained there, however. A tremendous sound of crashing glass was heard, followed by the sharp shut of the conservatory doors. It made Aunt Carly rush out, with Beatrice after her,-it made her, Beatrice still following, rush on to the dining-room where a moment before she had left Leonora; and there,-oh! alas! alas!—as she and Beatrice reached it together, they saw there was no Leonora there, to threaten, or cling to, but they saw the immense chimney-glass, over the fire-place, behind the gilt time-piece, and the great red vases of silver pampas-grass, shivered into atoms!

CHAPTER VII.

WHAT THE WORST BROUGHT.

"WHERE is she!" was Aunt Carly's cry in terrible anger. "Where is she! where is she!" And as the sharp words rang from her, sharper at each repetition, she looked round the room, she stamped her foot, her hands were clenched.

"The wicked, wicked, wicked girl!" she cried again. "Where has she hidden! where has she gone!"

Poor Beatrice was standing crushed and appalled. She was clasping her little hands together, she was drawing her breath hard, she could do nothing but keep her eyes on the starred and shattered glass. Aunt Carly's glass! The Little Dene glass! For such a terrible thing to have been thought of, and to have been done, there!

"The immense chimney-glass, over the fire-place, behind the gilt time-piece and the red vases of silver pampas-grass, was shivered into atoms."-Page So.

F

"I will have her!" Miss Brydie was still crying. "I will find her! She shall come !"

Beatrice changed then. A dreadful fear came on her as to what would happen to her sister. A fearful thing had been done by her, a fearful piece of revenge had been taken by her, and what would come of it?

"Aunt Carly!" she cried, holding her hands up in supplication, the tears streaming from her. "Don't thrash her! Don't kill her! Let her go!"

She scarcely knew what she said, poor little girl; she scarcely knew of what she was afraid; she only knew, right down in her heart, that to do such a thing as had been done was very wicked, and she thought her aunt was strong enough, and terrible enough, to give what punishment for it she pleased.

So, "Don't kill her!" was her cry, again and again. "Don't thrash her! Let her go ! "

Aunt Carly looked down upon her as she held her hands up in her poor little appeal. "Find her," she said sternly. "You know where she is likely to go. Bring her."

Little Beatrice stood by, at that, and stood still. Her aunt had said, "Find her," her aunt had said, "Bring her;" but could she find her? and could she bring her? And even if Lee had gone where she suspected she had gone, should she tell? For her sister was just the same to her as herself; she did not know the difference; what made one happy, always made the other happy, and what seemed a grief to one, was a grief to the other the same. And now that Leonora had brought this overwhelming disgrace and overwhelming terror, Beatrice could not look upon it as only Leonora's disgrace and Leonora's terror, it was her own, just as much; through which, how could she feel less about keeping punishment away from Leonora than she would have felt about keeping punishment away from herself?

"I will be obeyed!" Aunt Carly cried, with all her severity. "What is wrong must be treated as wrong, and at once. Go for her."

Miss Brydie was ringing the bell, at the same moment, for the maids; they were running in, instantly; looking shocked and frightened at what had been done; each asking her