"And Belle?" she said, kindly. "You can't have two right hands of course. But I've no doubt she is a helpful little woman too, in her way."
"Oh, yes!" said her mother, "she is. And she is getting on well with her lessons again, in spite of having been so put back last year."
"And," said the old lady—who had noticed the rather sullen look on Belle's little brown face—"I hope the two sisters love each other dearly, besides being a pair of extra hands to their mother."
Lily smiled back in reply.
"Yes," she said, "I am sure we do."
Soon after, their mother sent them all upstairs again. Nurse had come down to fetch Baby, and the two boys trotted off together. Lily took Belle's hand as they got to the foot of the stairs.
"Isn't she a nice lady?" she said, for Lily was feeling very pleased just then with herself and everybody else—I must say she was very seldom a cross little girl, but she was perhaps rather too inclined to be pleased with herself—"and didn't you like," she went on, "what mamma said of us two, to her?"
"No," said Belle, roughly, pulling herself away from her sister. "I don't want to be counted a clumsy, stupid, left hand. I don't wonder you're pleased, you always get praised."
"Oh, Belle!" said Lily. "I really don't think you need be so cross about it. You know you're younger than I."