"You're as masterful as you just was, and as I always thought you would be," said the mantua-maker. "I suppose you think times is changed."
"They are very much changed, Mrs. Marble," said Rotha calmly. "But I always had my dresses loose."
"And everything else about you!—" muttered the dress-maker. However, she was never an ill-natured woman, and took her orders with tolerable equanimity.
"You are the first young lady I ever saw trying on dresses, who did not want them to fit nicely," Miss Jewett remarked as they were driving away.
"But I could not breathe!" said Rotha. "I like to be comfortable."
"Different people have different notions of comfort," was the comment, not admiring. But Rotha did not give the matter another thought.
The next day was Sunday. "You will not go to church, dear," Mrs. Mowbray had whispered. "I shall not ask you till you have something to keep you warm. Have you a thick outer coat?"
Rotha explained. Her aunt had been about to get her one two or three weeks ago; then they had had their falling out, and since then she had heard no more on the subject.
"We will get things in order by next Sunday. You can study at home to- day, and maybe that will be the best thing for you."
It was the most welcome order Rotha could have received. She went up to Mrs. Mowbray's room, which she still inhabited, and took Bible and New Testament and her newly acquired possession, which she found bore title, "The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge," and sat down on the couch. It was all so comfortable around her that Rotha paused to look and think and enjoy. Hid away, she felt; safe and secure from all disturbances; her aunt could not worry her, Antoinette could not even look at her; nobody could interfere with her; and the good fairy of her life would come in only to help and shelter her. The warm air; poor Rotha had been inhabiting a region of frost, it must be remembered, material as well as spiritual; the slight sweet perfume that pervaded the room and came, Rotha knew not from what; the pretty, cosy look of the place, furniture, fire, pictures and all;—Rotha sat looking and feeling in a maze of astonishment. That all this should be, geographically, so near Mrs. Busby's house! With a breath of admiring delight, at last Rotha turned to her books. Yes, if she could get that question settled—