"Middling, ma'am, middling," replied Mrs. Maclean; "Miss Mary's looking a little pale, but I think it's trouble more than sickness."
"Trouble! why, I hope nothing has happened to disturb her."
"Nothing more than usual, ma'am; but that sister of hers is enough to worry out a saint; and I'm sure that's Miss Mary, if there ever was one."
"I fear Ellen is no favorite with you, Mrs. Maclean."
"Indeed, ma'am, and she was a very great favorite when first she came to me, for she was a lively, sprightly thing as ever I seed, but when she gets in her tantrums, she's more than mortal flesh can bear."
"But what do you mean by her tantrums, for I acknowledge I have never seen any thing in her which did not appear to me very excusable in a spoiled child."
"Well, ma'am, it may be so; that spoiled child may excuse it all; but, as I said, it's very hard for them to bear that didn't spoil her. Now, only this morning she asked me quite civil like for some more sugar in her tea; and I, to be just as civil as she, said, 'Come, help yourself, for I am afraid I won't suit you.'—Says she, 'I'm sure I'm not so very hard to be suited, and if you don't choose to help me I can go without.' And then I was mad at her perverse ways, and I said, 'Well, and if you can't put out your hand and help yourself, you can go without.' 'Yes,' says she, 'that's a very good excuse to save your sugar.' And then she keeps a-throwing out her insinuations of my stinginess, and how sorry her Uncle Villars would be for boarding them where they couldn't get enough to eat and drink; till I answered her, and says, 'Well, I'm sure he can't be no sorrier than I, for I would rather eat but one meal a-day in peace and quiet, than to take my good, hearty, three meals a-day with you quarrelling over them.' With that, up she gets, and says, 'I won't take my meals at anybody's table that don't wish me to, and I will never eat another meal at your table if I starve to death;' and sure enough, off she went up stairs without her breakfast. I shouldn't have minded that much, but poor Miss Mary went without her breakfast too, and had a good cry besides."