'Aunt Alison spends almost nothing on herself,' she said. 'She gives away every farthing she possibly can.'
'I know she does, dear. She is the most self-denying person in those ways that I have ever met,' said Mrs Mildmay heartily, though mentally hoping to herself that Jacinth was not very matter-of-fact. But Eugene was looking very solemn.
'What are you thinking of, my boy? his mother asked.
'Those clothes,' he said, 'those clothes what you went away with. They must be wored out. I was only two when you went away, mamma?'
This made them all laugh, which was perhaps a good thing—a slight relief to the over-excitement which in their different ways all had been experiencing.
'Mamma,' said Frances earnestly, when the laughter had calmed down, 'I must tell you, I had no idea you were so pretty. I think you are the very prettiest person I ever saw.'
'So do I,' Eugene chimed in.
Mrs Mildmay could not resist kissing again the two sweet flushed faces.
'My darlings,' she said, 'I hope you will always think so, in one way, even when my hair is white and my face old and wrinkled.'
'I hope,' thought Jacinth to herself, 'I hope mamma isn't—not vain, it's such a contemptible word—but I hope she doesn't care too much for looks and outside things of that kind.'