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As she intended them this good Luck, so 'tis likely she gave them some tolerable Additions while she was alive, as to their Education, and perhaps to their Equipage.
However, the foolish young Girls, supposing their Aunt had no Body else to give her Estate to, and not perhaps sensible of the Kindness shew'd them, at least not so sensible of it as they ought to have been, carry'd it but very indifferently to the old Lady; not only slighting her, and neglecting her on many Occasions, but sometimes took upon them to be saucy to her; and, in a word, at length they too plainly discovered that they looked upon the Estate to be, as it were, their right, and as if the old Lady lived too long for them; they would be frequently talking to one another, or to others, what they would do, and how they would live when they came to the Estate, if the old Woman was but out of the Way.
Either some officious People, perhaps Servants, had spite enough to report this to the old Lady, or the Nieces had the Indiscretion to let her hear some of it; the latter not very unlikely; or she gathered from the whole Tenour of their Conduct, that they slighted her; that they only waited the good Hour, that what little Respect they shew'd her, was evidently for what they were to get by her, and no otherwise, and that they waited with impatience when she would be pleased to walk off; all which was indeed true in Fact.
After the old Lady had thus taken notice of their Conduct some time, she once took Occasion more particularly to let them know it: She told them what she had observed,how
