"I should have been with you, dear, and not have left you, if I had not been tied at home myself."
"So I thought; and that made it seem so very strange. But, oh! don't you think," said Ellen, her face suddenly brightening, "don't you think, Mr. Van Brunt came up to see me last night? Wasn't it good of him? He even sat down and read to me; only think of that. And isn't he kind? he asked if I would like a rocking-chair; and of course I said yes, for these other chairs are dreadful, they break my back; and there wasn't such a thing as a rocking-chair in Aunt Fortune's house, she hates 'em, she says; and this morning, the first thing I knew, in walked Mr. Van Brunt with this nice rocking-chair. Just get up and see how nice it is; you see the back is cushioned, and the elbows, as well as the seat; it's queer looking, ain't it? but it's very comfortable. Wasn't it good of him?"
"It was very kind, I think. But do you know, Ellen, I am going to have a quarrel with you?"
"What about?" said Ellen. "I don't believe it's anything very bad, for you look pretty good-humoured, considering."
"Nothing _very_ bad," said Alice, "but still enough to quarrel about. You have twice said '_ain't_' since I have been here."
"Oh," said Ellen laughing, "is that all?"
"Yes," said Alice, "and my English ears don't like it at all."
"Then they shan't hear it," said Ellen, kissing her. "I don't know what makes me say it; I never used to. But I've got more to tell you; I've had more visitors. Who do you think came to see me?--you'd never guess--Nancy Vawse!--Mr. Van Brunt came in the very nick of time, when I was almost worried to death with her. Only think of _her_ coming up here! unknown to everybody. And she stayed an age, and how she _did_ go on. She cracked nuts on the hearth; she got every stitch of my clothes out of my trunk and scattered them over the floor; she tried to make me drink gruel till between us we spilled a great parcel on the bed; and she had begun to tickle me when Mr. Van Brunt came. Oh, wasn't I glad to see him! And when Aunt Fortune came up and saw it all she was as angry as she could be; and she scolded and scolded, till at last I told her it was none of my doing--I couldn't help it at all--and she needn't talk so to me about it; and then she said it was my fault the whole of it! that if I hadn't scraped acquaintance with Nancy when she had forbidden me, all this would never have happened."