"I think you can do it for yourself, Maria. I have no objection to your finishing it."
"I cannot put on that braid—in that quirlicue pattern, mamma; I never did such work as that; and I haven't time, besides."
"Nor inclination," said Letitia, laughing. "Come, Maria, it is time you learned to do something for yourself. Matilda, now, might plead inexperience, and have some reason; but you are quite old enough."
The dispute would have gone on, but Mrs. Englefield desired silence, and the family drew round the tea-table. Other plans for the following weeks filled every tongue. Mrs. Candy was well off; a widow with one child, her daughter Clarissa; she had been in Europe for several years; coming back now to her own country, she was bending her steps first of all to her sister's house and family.
"We shall have the new fashions, straight from Paris," Anne remarked.
"Has Aunt Candy been in Paris? I thought she was in Scotland, mamma?"
"People may go to Paris, if they have been in Scotland, Maria. It is not so far as around the world."
"But has she been in Paris?"
"Lately."
"Mamma, what is Aunt Candy going to do with herself when summer comes? She says, 'till summer.'"