"Worse and worse! Two giddy heads are worse than one. I am surprised that your mother should think of leaving you alone with such a vain worldly girl as Lillie Adams."
"Lillie is neither vain nor worldly, Aunt Dorinda!" said Anna, with spirit. "She was confirmed last Easter, and the is a good Christian girl, if ever there was one."
"Don't tell me that, Anna Grey!" returned Aunt Dorinda, angrily. "Haven't I seen her with my own eyes with three ruffles on the lower skirt of her dress and as many on the upper? Do you call that being a Christian?"
"Lillie does not follow her own taste in dress," said Anna, smiling in spite of herself. "Her stepmother dresses her. Lillie said to me that she preferred to dress more plainly; but Mrs. Adams had always been so kind and good to her, that she did not like to contradict her on a matter of no great importance. You know, Aunt Dorinda, how devotedly Mrs. Adams nursed Lillie through her long illness, after she had that dreadful accident. Papa himself said that Lillie owed her life and health more to her stepmother's nursing than to his skill. Mrs. Adams gave up everything to her."
"O yes, I know!" said Aunt Dorinda, scornfully. "I heard all that when I talked to Lillie as I did about her dress."
"'What of that?' said I. 'You ought to follow your own convictions of duty, whatever your stepmother may say.'"
"And all Lillie did was to toss head and say that 'her convictions of duty led her to honor her father and mother.'"
"What time do you have tea?"
"At seven-o'clock, aunt, because it is more convenient to papa: but I will order it earlier, if you are hungry, after your ride."
"Well, I am surprised!" This was Aunt Dorinda's favorite phrase. "I should think your father, being a physician, would know better than to eat so late in the evening. Half-past five is the very latest hour that any one ought to eat."