’Like the letter which Mrs. Staunton wrote to you about Rupert, and which Papa called ecstatic,’ said Anne.

‘That is an instance of Mrs. Staunton’s way of expressing herself,’ said Lady Merton; ’now I will give you one of her acuteness of feeling, as she calls it.  Your Aunt Katherine was her greatest friend when she was a girl, though I believe the kind epithets she lavished upon me would have been enough to stock two or three moderate friendships.  We all used to walk together, and spend at least one evening in the week together.  One evening, your aunt, who had a good deal of the same high careless spirit which you observe in Lizzie, chanced to make some observation upon the rudeness of sailors in general, forgetting that Helen Atherley’s brother was a sailor.’

‘Or if she had remembered it,’ said Anne, ’judging by Lizzie, she would have said the same thing; she would have taken it for granted that the present company was always excepted.’

‘Captain Atherley was not of the present company,’ said Lady Merton, ’he was in the Mediterranean; and it happened that he had not had time to call at Merton Hall in due form, the last time he had been at home, so that poor Helen thought that this speech was aimed at him.  She said nothing at the time; but next morning arrived a note to me, to entreat me to find out what her darling Henry could possibly have done to offend dearest Katherine Merton, for she should be wretched till she understood it, and Katherine had forgiven her and him.  She assured me that she had lain awake all night, thinking it over, and had at last come to the conclusion that it must be this unfortunate omission, and she promised to write to dear Henry immediately, to make him send all possible apologies.’

‘Poor Captain Atherley!’ exclaimed Anne; ’and what could my aunt say?’

‘Unfortunately,’ said Lady Merton, ’both she and I had entirely forgotten the speech, and could not guess what could have given rise to Helen’s imaginations.  After a consultation, I was deputed to Helen with many assurances that Katherine was very sorry, she could not exactly tell why, but for whatever had grieved Helen; and after a good deal of kissing and lamenting on both sides, which, I believe, Katherine considered as a punishment for her inconsiderate speech, things were set right again.’

‘Inconsiderate, Mamma?’ said Anne; ’that seems as if you blamed my aunt, when it seems to me that Mrs. Staunton deserved all the blame for her excessive folly, and what I should think want of confidence in her friend’s affection.’

‘It was certainly very silly,’ said Lady Merton; ’but you know, Anne, that when people have once accustomed themselves to get into a habit of making mountains of mole-hills, they cannot see anything as it really is.  I thought Katherine quite in the right, as you do now, but I believe she considered that, knowing as she did the over-sensitiveness of her friend, she should have been more cautious in what she said.’