"I wish, Miss Ellen, you'd please hold your head up, and look somewhere; I don't know when I'll get your hair done if you keep it down so."
"Oh, Mason, I think that'll do; it looks very well; you needn't do anything more."
"I beg your pardon, Miss Ellen; but you know it's your grandmother that must be satisfied, and she will have it just so; there, now that's going to look lovely; but, indeed, Miss Ellen, she won't be pleased if you carry such a soberish face downstairs and what will the master say! Most young ladies would be as bright as a bee at being going to see so many people; and, indeed, it's what you should."
"I had rather see one or two persons than one or two hundred," said Ellen, speaking half to herself and half to Mrs. Mason.
"Well, for pity's sake, Miss Ellen, dear, if you can, don't look as if it was a funeral! There! 't ain't much trouble to fix you, anyhow; if you'd only care a little more about it, it would be a blessing. Stop till I fix this lace. The master will call you his white rosebud to-night, sure enough."
"That's nothing new," said Ellen, half-smiling.
Mason left her; and feeling the want of something to raise her spirits, Ellen sorrowfully went to her Bible, and slowly turning it over, looked along its pages to catch a sight of something cheering before she went downstairs.
"This God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death."
"Isn't that enough?" thought Ellen, as her eyes filled in answer. "It ought to be John would say it was Oh! where is he?"
She went on, turning leaf after leaf.