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160 strengthened when she observed, that, during the breakfast, her aunt seemed very much agitated; but she was at a loss to account for the look she darted on her, when one of the children said, "How your hair looks, Jane; this is the first time I ever saw you come to breakfast without combing it."

Jane replied, that she had over-slept.

"You look more," said Elvira, "as if you had been watching all night, and crying too, I should imagine, from the redness of your eyes—and now I think of it," she added, regardless of Jane's embarrassment, "I am sure I heard your door shut in the night, and you walking about your room."

Jane was more confused by the expression of her aunt's face, than by her cousin's observations. What, thought she, can I have done to provoke her? I certainly have done nothing; but there is never a storm in the family, without my biding some of its pitiless pelting.

After breakfast, the family dispersed, as usual, excepting Mrs. Wilson, David, and Jane, who remained to assist her aunt in removing the breakfast apparatus. Mrs. Wilson, neither wishing nor able any longer to restrain her wrath, went up to her desk, and taking hold of a pocket handkerchief which appeared to lie on the top of it, but which, as she stretched it out, showed one end caught and fastened in the desk—"Do you know this handkerchief, Jane Elton?" she said in a voice choking with passion.