"What ails my little Doll?" gently asked the old lady.
"An't please your good Ladyship, you said Frid and Annis[#] should both go away hence."
[#] Annis, or more correctly Anneyse, is the old French form of Agnes, and appears to have been used in the Middle Ages, in England, as an affectionate diminutive. Some have supposed Annis to be a variety of Anne, and have therefore concluded that Anne and Agnes were considered the same name. This, I think, is a mistake. Annas is the Scottish spelling.
"We did, my little maid. Is our Doll very sorry therefor?"
"I shall be all alone!" sobbed Dorathie.
"'All alone!'" repeated her grandmother with a smile, which was pitying and a little sympathetic. "Little Doll, there be fourteen in this house beside Frideswide and Agnes."
"But they are none of them them!" said Dorathie.
"Aye. There is the rub," answered her grandmother. "But, little maid, we all have to come to that some time."
"'Tis as well to begin early, Doll," said her uncle.
"Please it you, Uncle Maurice," replied Dorathie, rubbing the tears out of her eyes with her small hands, "I'd rather begin late!"