"I know no such thing," said Mrs. Grey, greatly amused. "I know of no one so hard to impose on as I am."
"'O wad some power the giftie gie us,'" quoted Frank Grey, who had just entered the room, after a late breakfast, and was bending his six-feet frame to kiss his mother.
"I wish it wad," said his sister Laura, "for then you would be up in season for breakfast. It isn't nice to come down after everything has grown as cold as a stone. Does Lily let you do so at home?"
"Lily set me the example," he said, laughing. "Besides, mamma grows indulgent in her declining years."
"Perhaps I am a little indulgent," said Mrs. Grey. "Parents who are severe with their children when they are young, are apt to relax as they grow older."
A shout of laughter followed this remark. Mrs. Grey looked around, surprised.
"Now, what have I said that should make you so merry?" she asked, innocently.
"That little word 'severe' lies at the bottom of the joke," said Frank. "The idea of our beautiful lady-mother insinuating that she was ever hard upon her offspring!"
"At all events, if I could live my life over again, I would deal very differently with my children from what I did—especially with you two older ones."