"
Taking advantage of her presence, the crest-fallen Edith crept
disconsolately up the stairs, feeling that she had made a most
ridiculous mistake, and wondering what the word COULD be that
sounded so much like 'PHYSICS, and yet wasn't that at all. She
know she had made herself ridiculous, and was indulging in a fit
of crying when Mrs. Atherton returned, delighted to meet her young
cousin, in whom she felt a pardonable pride.
"You must have been very lonely," she said, beginning to apologize
for her absence.
"Never was less so in my life," he replied. "Why, I've been
splendidly entertained by a little black princess, who called
herself your waiting maid, and discoursed most eloquently of
METAPHYSICS and all that."
"Edith, of course," said Grace. "It's just, like her. Imitated me
in every thing, I dare say."
"Rather excelled you, I think, in putting on the fine lady,"
returned the teasing Arthur, who saw at once that Edith Hastings
was his fair cousin's sensitive point.
"What else did she say?" asked Grace, but Arthur generously
refrained from repeating the particulars of his interview with the
little girl who, as the days went by, interested him so much that
he forgot his Virginia pride, and greatly to Mrs.
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