Then, without telling what its contents were, so that her auditors were quite in the dark as to what her remarks applied, she said, - 'I think they might have remembered that I am a generation nearer to them than she is, but nobody thinks of family affection now-a-days; and I liked him so much, and bought a new cookery-book, all to make it pleasant and agreeable and what he was used to.' She said all this in a plaintive, aggrieved tone of voice; but as no one knew to what she was referring, it was difficult to offer her consolation.Her husband was the first to speak.'If you want us to sympathize with you, tell us what is the nature of your woe.' 'Why, I daresay it's what he means as a very kind attention, only I think I ought to have been asked before Cynthia,' said she, reading the letter over again.'Who's he ? and what's meant for a "kind attention"?' 'Mr Kirkpatrick, to be sure.This letter is from him; and he wants Cynthia to go and pay them a visit, and never says anything about you or me, my dear.And I'm sure we did our best to make it pleasant; and he should have asked us first, I think.' 'As I could not possibly have gone, it makes very little difference to me.' 'But I could have gone; and, at any rate, he should have paid us the compliment:
