"I suppose Marie must have some new clothes," said Hector McGregor at breakfast. "We must not let her go among her new friends with nothing to wear."
"I don't think you need take any trouble about that, grandfather," said Marion, "I dare say father—I mean Mr. Van Alstine—will provide all that is necessary."
"I dare say Ezra will do what is right, my dear, but I should not like you to begin by asking him for something to wear," said Miss Baby. "Aunt Christian has to go to T— for two or three days. We will just look over your things and see what is needed, and she will buy it for us."
The clothes were looked over, and it was decided that Marion should have a new black silk, a muslin and some other articles of minor importance.
"Don't you mean to send for your summer shawl, Aunt Baby?" asked Marion. "You won't have another so good a chance."
"No, dear; I don't think I shall buy a summer shawl just at present," answered Aunt Baby, quietly. "My old one will do very well for some time yet."
"Well, I wonder how you can bear to wear that old snuff-coloured Canton crape that is as well-known as the meeting-house," said Marion.
And it was not till some hours afterward that she suspected that the price of Aunt Baby's new summer shawl had gone into her black silk. It was not that Marion meant to be ungrateful so much as that she did not think. Her heart was never—
"At leisure from itself"
to consider the claims and feelings of others.