TURNS OF FORTUNE. 26

than aunt and niece. Sarah Bond’s erect and
perfectly flat figure was surmounted by a Jong
head and face, round which an abundance of
gray hair was folded; for by no other term can
I describe its peculiar dress; her cap plain, but
white as snow; and a black silk gown, that had
seen its best days, was pinned and primmed on,
so as to sit as close as possible to a figure which
would have been greatly improved by heavy and
abundant drapery. Mabel, lithe and restless,
buoyant and energetic, unable even to wish for
more luxury or more happiness than she pos-
sessed, so that her active mind was forced to
‘employ its longings on trifles, as it really had
nothing else to desire; her face was round as
those faces are which become oval in time ; and
cher bright laughing eyes sparkled like sunbeams
at the bare notion of making “aunt Sarah”
take either the place of a high-backed chair, or
the embroidery frame in a quadrille. ‘ Do
dance,”’ she repeated.

‘*My dear child, I know as little of your
quadrilles as you do of my country dances and
reels. No, Mabel; I can neither open the
spinnet nor dance quadrilles ; so you have been
twice refused this morning ; a novelty, is it not,
my dearest Mabel?”

‘But why do you not break open the spin-
net? Do break it open, aunt; I want to see
the inside of it so much.”

** No, Mabel; the lock is a peculiar one, and