"Uncle, I have come to see Julianna."
The muscles of his face moved, but he made no answer.
"I have come to stay with her, if you wish it."
"Thank you," he said, in a thick voice.
"Is there anything I can do for you?"
"What can be done?" he said, bitterly, and almost roughly.
"Do you wish me to stay?"
"Yes; I am obliged to you for coming to see a woman of bad reputation."
Patsey left him for the present. She found her cousins together; Emmeline's eyes were red, as if she had just been weeping; Mrs. Hilson was stretched on a sofa, in a very elegant morning-gown, reading a novel of very doubtful morality. Patsey offered her hand, which was taken quite cavalierly.
"Well, Patsey," she said, "I hope you have not come to be a spy upon me."