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206 Mrs. Palmer is always glad to see us, and you will be better without our interruption." "You are right, child, go; it is just about her tea time. There are more unlikely things than that I should follow you." Happy and thankful, the dear young creatures obeyed in a trice, for they were impatient to tell their excellent friend that they had confessed, and were forgiven; and they were heard with the more pleasure, because Mrs. Palmer could inform them "that the paragraph which had made so happy a change in the feelings of Lady Anne had been written and paid for by her son Gooch, who was really a very clever hand at almost every thing." "Paid for?" exclaimed the girls at the same moment. "Yes, to be sure, my dears, every thing in this world is paid for in one kind of coin or other: the newspaper people owe Mr. Gooch no obligation, therefore were quite certain to take his money, and he had a right to indulge himself in such a thing, surely, as much as in buying a toy for his little boy." "But I hope mamma will never know that Mr. Gooch." Just then Lady Anne entered, all smiles and graciousness. The matter in question explained itself, for the newspaper was in Helen's hand. "I came in to beg a cup of tea, Mrs. Palmer, not to inquire into a secret, but I cannot help comprehending from the