376 FORGIVENESS AND FOREBODING. 



on the same anniversary ; and while my little cousin cried 

 herself to sleep, either for the cricket's disaster, or the sight 

 of Dolly's distressful face, which, for all her kindly artifice, 

 she could not veil from the penetrating eye of childhood, I 

 listened long to the moaning of the snow-wind, and dreamt, 

 when I closed my eyes, of Dolly's black 'beadles,' her first 

 master, the London undertaker, and a tolling bell. 



After Lucy was in bed, Mrs. Dove redescended to the 

 kitchen, and joined Caleb, to await the return home of the 

 other servants, and the always tardy break-up of my uncle's 

 social sederunt. She, poor soul ! had lost her appetite, but 

 she laid on supper for the old man, and even took down his 

 pipe and placed it by his side. Softened, perhaps, for once, 

 by these unmerited attentions, the offending butler, now that 

 we were no longer present to witness his humiliation, actually 

 made up his mind to express something like contrition for the 

 deed he had committed. After sundry uneasy contortions of 

 limb and feature, the hard lines of his face assumed something 

 of a deprecating turn. He drew his chair towards that of his 

 vis-d-vis, and then, in a voice not unlike the scraze of its legs 

 upon the brick floor, gave utterance, as if with infinite effort, 

 to the indeniable assertion that " Forgiveness is gracious." 



Dolly, with a sorrowful but most forgiving smile, shook her 

 head; "Ah, Caleb!" said she, "you were in a pet, and I 

 suppose couldn't help it; but sure as we are sitting here, 

 something amiss will come over this old house before another 



