Of course this change in their circumstances did not pass without many remarks from their friends. Mr. Cole, whose property had somehow been discovered to belong entirely to his wife and her brothers, did not hesitate to say that George Fletcher had acted like a fool. Mrs. Coles thought Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher ought to have more consideration for the prospects of their daughter. Mrs. Sarah Bertie, who loved her niece and nephew Fletcher as well as she loved any one in the world but herself, but who knew as much of business as her own gray parrot, was very angry at him for his bad management. At the same time that she snubbed Mr. Coles for expressing an unfavorable opinion of Mr. Fletcher, and informed him that George Fletcher knew more than he ever thought he did; a very bold assertion, which Mr. Coles, having an eye to the old lady's succession, received with great meekness and submission.
Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher did not find themselves as unhappy as they expected in their new abode. Mr. Fletcher's honor had come out untarnished, and his conscience told him, that if he had been imprudent in investments, he had at least done all in his power to make amends. No unpaid butcher's or baker's bills disturbed his slumbers, nor were those of his wife rendered uneasy by the vision of unsettled milliner's accounts. True, the want of birds and flowers was deeply felt, but as the possession of these things had never constituted the source of their happiness, so the want of them could not destroy it.
Perhaps Ethel was the most to be pitied of any of the family. She had never been accustomed to deny herself any thing she wanted from motives of economy, and she found it hard work to begin. The house seemed to her very small, confined, and gloomy, and she did not like to wash dishes and sweep, or to see her mother at work in the kitchen. All these things weighed upon her mind and spirits, and Abby's remarks and her aunt's observation had brought her discontent to a climax. A little girl of twelve does not usually know much about business, and she could not see why, if Mr. Coles had kept his fine house, and her cousin dressed as well as ever, she should be wearing all her old frocks, and living in a little house with only three rooms on the ground-floor, and no garden at all.
Now a cloud was not a very common sight upon Ethel's face, for though her temper was somewhat hasty, it was also sunshiny and cheerful; and Mrs. Fletcher was not very long in perceiving that something was amiss. Ethel had been sitting for some time silently looking out of the window, where nothing very interesting was to be seen, when her mother asked—
"Don't you feel well, Ethel?"
"Yes, mother," said Ethel, in a voice which sounded as though it came from the tombs.
"Has any thing gone wrong in school, or have you had a quarrel with Abby?"
"No, mother," replied Ethel again; but she did not offer any solution of the mystery.
Mrs. Fletcher said no more, but waited in silence, certain that it would not be long before her daughter opened her mind.
At last, after an interval of silence, Ethel said with some hesitation—