 one of them
offered to help her off with her shawl, and the offer being accepted, inquired
whether she did not find black very uncomfortable wear.
    »I do indeed,« replied Kate, with a bitter sigh.
    »So dusty and hot,« observed the same speaker, adjusting her dress for her.
    Kate might have said, that mourning is sometimes the coldest wear which
mortals can assume; that it not only chills the breasts of those it clothes, but
extending its influence to summer friends, freezes up their sources of good-will
and kindness, and withering all the buds of promise they once so liberally put
forth, leaves nothing but bared and rotten hearts exposed. There are few who
have lost a friend or relative constituting in life their sole dependence, who
have not keenly felt this chilling influence of their sable garb. She had felt
it acutely, and feeling it at the moment, could not quite restrain her tears.
    »I am very sorry to have wounded you by my thoughtless speech,« said her
companion. »I did not think of it. You are in mourning for some near relation?«
    »For my father,« answered Kate.
    »For what relation, Miss Simmonds?« asked Miss Knag in an audible voice.
    »Her father,« replied the other softly.
    »Her father, eh?« said Miss Knag, without the slightest depression of her
voice. »Ah! A long illness, Miss Simmonds?«
    »Hush,« replied the girl; »I don't know.«
    »Our misfortune was very sudden,« said Kate, turning away, »or I might
perhaps, at a time like this, be enabled to support it better.«
    There had existed not a little desire in the room, according to invariable
custom, when any new young person came, to know who Kate was, and what she was,
and all about her; but, although it might have been very naturally increased by
her appearance and emotion, the knowledge that it pained her to be questioned,
was sufficient to repress even this curiosity; and Miss Knag, finding it
hopeless to attempt extracting any further particulars just then, reluctantly
commanded silence, and bade the work proceed.
    In silence, then, the tasks were plied until half-past one, when a baked leg
of mutton, with potatoes to correspond, were served in the kitchen. The meal
over, and the young ladies having enjoyed the additional relaxation of washing
their hands, the work began again, and was again performed in silence, until the
noise
