I--I am
afraid you would not be comfortable if you didn't."
Octavia opened her eyes, as she often did at Miss Belinda's remarks, and
then suddenly she began to laugh again.
"What would they do?" she said disrespectfully. "Would they turn me out,
without giving me any tea?"
Lucia looked still more frightened.
"Don't let them see you laughing," she said. "They--they will say you
are giddy."
"Giddy!" replied Octavia. "I don't think there is any thing to make me
giddy here."
"If they say you are giddy," said Lucia, "your fate will be sealed; and,
if you are to stay here, it really will be better to try to please them
a little."
Octavia reflected a moment.
"I don't mean to _dis_please them," she said, "unless they are very
easily displeased. I suppose I don't think very much about what people
are saying of me. I don't seem to notice."
"Will you come now and let me introduce Miss Egerton and her sister?"
suggested Lucia hurriedly. "Grandmamma is looking at us."
In the innocence of her heart Octavia glanced at Lady Theobald, and
saw that she was looking at them, and with a disapproving air.
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