old house they live with us now they said i of david mr and his mother he sleeps in your old room said looking up into my face i wish i had the ordering of his dreams said i he wouldn t sleep there long � i keep my own little room said where i used to learn my lessons how the time goes you remember the little room that opens from the drawing room remember when i saw you for the first time coming out at the door with your quaint little basket of keys hanging at your side it is just the same said smiling i am glad you think of it so pleasantly we were very happy we were indeed said i i keep that room to myself still but i cannot always desert mrs you know and so said quietly i feel obliged to bear her company when i might prefer to be alone but i have no other reason to complain of her if she me sometimes by her praises of her son it is only natural in a mother he is a very good son to her i looked at when she said these words without in her any consciousness of s design her mild but earnest eyes met mine with their own beautiful frankness and there was no change in her gentle face � tiie chief evil of their presence in the house said is that i cannot be as near papa as i could wish � being so much between us � and cannot watch over him if that is not too bold a thing to say as closely as i would but if any fraud or treachery is against him i hope that simple love and truth will be stronger in the end i hope that real love and truth are stronger in the end than any evil or misfortune in the world a certain bright smile which i never saw on any other face died away even while i thought how good it was and how it had once been to me and she asked me with a quick change of expression we were drawing very near my street if i knew how the reverse in my aunt s circumstances had been brought about on my replying no she had not told me yet became thoughtful and i fancied i felt her arm tremble in mine we found my aunt alone in a state of some excitement a difference of opinion had arisen between herself and mrs on an abstract question the propriety of chambers being inhabited by the sex and my aunt utterly indifferent to on the part of mrs had cut the dispute short by informing that lady that she smelt of my brandy and that she would trouble her to walk out both of these expressions mrs considered and had expressed her intention of bringing before a british � meaning it was supposed the of our national liberties my aunt however having had time to cool while was out showing mr dick the soldiers at the horse guards � and being besides greatly pleased to see � rather herself on the affair than otherwise and received us with good humour when laid her bonnet on the table and sat down beside her i could not but think looking on her mild eyes and her radiant forehead how natural it the personal history and experience seemed to have her there how although she was so young and inexperienced my aunt confided in her how strong she was indeed in simple love and truth we began to talk about my aunt s losses and i told them what i ha tried to do that morning which was trot said my aunt but well meant you are a generous boy � i suppose i young man now � and i am proud of you my dear so far so good now trot and let us look the case of in the face and see how it stands i observed turn pale as she looked very attentively at my aunt my aunt patting her cat looked very attentively at said my aunt who had always kept her money matters to herself � i don t mean your sister trot my dear but myself � had a certain property it don t matter how enough to live on more for she had saved a little and added to it her property for some time and then by the advice of her man of business laid it out on landed security that did very well and returned very good interest till was paid off i am talking of as if she was a man of war well then had to look about her for a new she thought she was wiser now than her man of business who was not such a good man of business by this time as he used to be � � i am alluding to your father � and she took it into her head to lay it out for herself so she took her pigs said my aunt to a foreign market and a very bad market it turned out to be first she lost in the way and then she lost in the way � fishing up treasure or some such tom nonsense explained my aunt rubbing her nose and then she lost in the way again and last of all to set the thing entirely to rights she lost in the way i don t know what the bank shares were worth for a little while said my aunt cent per cent was the lowest of it i believe but the bank was at the other end of the world and tumbled into space for what i know anyhow it fell to pieces and never will and never can pay sixpence and s were all there and there s an end of them least said 