The result was that at 8 A. M. Thursday Sidney left Miss Patty and Lettie on the platform of the morning train bound for the great city.
As they entered the car Miss Patty said to Lettie "Let me sit next the window. I hate to sit next the aisle. Some one always tramps my clothes." After they were seated she shut down the wooden screen.
"Why, Cousin Patty," exclaimed Lettie, "don't you want to see out?"
"And let in the cinders? Why, I've been over the road so often I know every stone in it."
Evening came, and they went up the steps of a large handsome house, and were admitted by a trim serving woman, who looked a little older than Miss Patty.
"Good evening, Tibbie. You got my note?"
"Yes, ma'am; and the room is ready, and everything as you told me."
Tibbie helped them carry their bundles upstairs, and while Miss Patty went on to the front room, she said to Lettie, "This is your room, Miss Letitia." Lettie found it beautifully furnished, mid rejoiced in the thought of the elegant leisure she was about to enjoy. It was rather lonely at night without Hattie's chatter, and it seemed so strange to have only Miss Patty to bid good-night.
The next day Miss Patty said, "My dear, I want you to feel that you have nothing to do but enjoy yourself. I do not want you to make your own bed even. Tibbie will do that. Choose your own amusements and employments."
It was very nice at first, and Lettie was loud in her praises of the new life, in writing to her mother and Hattie. By and by, however, she became tired of playing the piano in the lonely parlor, of drawing pictures which no one saw. Reading had made her head ache—a new experience—and she wearied of sitting and looking out of the window. She soon found that Tibbie did not like intruders in the kitchen. It was so quiet! Cousin Patty had provided her with nice clothing, but there was no one to see it. Cousin Patty's visitors were all elderly, and talked about things above her comprehension. If she hadn't felt ashamed, she would have asked for even a doll to keep her company. One day she asked Miss Patty, "Do no children ever visit you?"