Page:Traits and Trials.pdf/66

60 why a stranger should come in the place of their still fondly remembered parent, expected that, as every thing else had changed, the portrait would change too, and watched over it with a mixture of fear and love. Every morning they stole quietly into the room, and went happy in the conviction that the sweet face which was to their affectionate eyes such a treasure had still a smile for them. There was something in this answer that provoked Mrs. Dalton to the utmost, and yet she scarcely knew how to make it a subject of reproof: catching, however, at one expression Julia had used, she retorted, "So I am not your mamma, you little ungrateful creatures. I know who taught you this; but I won't have an old black in my house much longer to make every body as insolent as herself: go along to the nursery, and, to punish you for your disobedience, you shall not come down stairs after dinner today." This was no longer a punishment, it was a penance, on the contrary, which they were glad to avoid. They knew that, from the time they