THE LITTLE BROWN BOOK OF MISS EMILY
The first summer Mr. Irving and Miss Lavendar--Diana and I could
never call her anything else, even after she was married--were at
Echo Lodge after their marriage, both Diana and I spent a great
deal of time with them. We became acquainted with many of the
Grafton people whom we had not known before, and among others,
the family of Mr. Mack Leith. We often went up to the Leiths in
the evening to play croquet. Millie and Margaret Leith were very
nice girls, and the boys were nice, too. Indeed, we liked every
one in the family, except poor old Miss Emily Leith. We tried
hard enough to like her, because she seemed to like Diana and me
very much, and always wanted to sit with us and talk to us, when
we would much rather have been somewhere else. We often felt a
good deal of impatience at these times, but I am very glad to
think now that we never showed it.
In a way, we felt sorry for Miss Emily. She was Mr. Leith's
old-maid sister and she was not of much importance in the
household. But, though we felt sorry for her, we couldn't like
her. She really was fussy and meddlesome; she liked to poke a
finger into every one's pie, and she was not at all tactful.
Then, too, she had a sarcastic tongue, and seemed to feel bitter
towards all the young folks and their love affairs. Diana and I
thought this was because she had never had a lover of her own.
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