Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 0I was troubled by no doubt of her being very pretty, in
any case; but it fell out that I had never seen her look so well.
She was not in the drawing-room when I presented Agnes
to her little aunts, but was shyly keeping out of the way. I
knew where to look for her, now; and sure enough I found
her stopping her ears again, behind the same dull old door.
At first she wouldn’t come at all; and then she pleaded for
five minutes by my watch. When at length she put her arm
through mine, to be taken to the drawing-room, her charm-
ing little face was flushed, and had never been so pretty. But,
when we went into the room, and it turned pale, she was ten
thousand times prettier yet.
Dora was afraid of Agnes. She had told me that she knew
Agnes was ‘too clever’. But when she saw her looking at once
so cheerful and so earnest, and so thoughtful, and so good,
she gave a faint little cry of pleased surprise, and just put
her affectionate arms round Agnes’s neck, and laid her in-
nocent cheek against her face.
I never was so happy. I never was so pleased as when I
saw those two sit down together, side by side. As when I saw
my little darling looking up so naturally to those cordial
eyes. As when I saw the tender, beautiful regard which Ag-
nes cast upon her.
Miss Lavinia and Miss Clarissa partook, in their way, of
my joy. It was the pleasantest tea-table in the world. Miss
Clarissa presided. I cut and handed the sweet seed-cake -
the little sisters had a bird-like fondness for picking up
seeds and pecking at sugar; Miss Lavinia looked on with
benignant patronage, as if our happy love were all her work;