her and hold the basket when she goes to look for specimens. All is so changed! I wish that Indian gentleman would write home for his sister."

"You are a child, Millicent," said Miss Lane seriously, “ and GOD has placed you in a lowly rank. He means that in this world at least Miss Beverley should be closer and dearer to Miss Mabel than yourself. Cannot you try to feel that what He wills is right and best ?”

"If only He had kept Miss Beverley away from Hugh Town," resumed Milly, in a subdued tone, in which, however, was no touch of resignation. "I suppose I must not hate her, since I am a Christian, but I think she should go to take care of all those little heathen boys and girls across the sea."

Miss Lane could not help smiling at Milly's disinterested ardour in behalf of Foreign Missions, yet she was painfully struck by the exacting nature of the child's affection, and her voice resumed somewhat of its old sternness, as she asked,

"What do you think will be Miss May Bird's feelings when GOD calls upon her to part from the friend she loves ?"

"I shall be able to comfort her," rejoined Milly impetuously; "she will like to have me near her, and there will be nothing I shall not then do to please her."

"You cannot supply Miss Beverley's place, Millicent, and for your own sake you had better understand this clearly. Still God may let you be a real help to Miss May Bird if you are a noble and unselfish child, but there is only one way in which you can learn to be such.” "And what is that way ?" demanded Milly in a somewhat milder tone.

"To try and share Miss Mabel's every feeling," was the unflinching answer. "You must begin now by thanking God for the happiness He has sent her, and ask Him to make you wish that it shall long continue. Then, if it be His will to take this gift away, you must remember the loss it will be to her, and never cease striving and praying until conscience tells you that you would gladly restore to her Miss Beverley's companionship if it were in your power."

Poor Millicent looked very blank, for such entire self-annihilation was beyond the scope of her present attainments. There was however much of latent heroism in her disposition, and she felt at least the germ of a desire to reach this standard of a loftier excellence. Miss Lane had spoken with unwonted tact and wisdom, for although scarcely ad

mitting the fact to herself, she understood the feeling which she sought to check in Millicent. Mabel had indeed become utterly absorbed in Geraldine, to the neglect of every other social claim; she always met Miss Lane with cordiality, but she did not as formerly steal in at unexpected moments, to cast the sunshine of her girlish presence over the little dingy parlour and its uncomplaining inmate. Millicent was still noticed with a gay word or a sparkling smile, but she was not detained in conversation, treated almost as an equal and brought into contact with a superior intelligence in a degree very unusual to persons of her age and station. The teacher and the child alike felt conscious of a void in daily life which ordinary occupations could not fill. Relative duties, even although self-imposed, can never with impunity be set aside, and Mabel had unwittingly caused much real suffering by the indifference now shown, where she had once lavished the outward tokens of affectionate regard.

A few drops of rain, and the increasing violence of the west wind, soon warned Miss Lane that Milly must be sent home without delay, lest the long-gathering storm should overtake her on the road. Closely enveloped in her warm thick cloak, the child went forth into the chilly dampness, whilst the governess once more drew her chair towards the writing-desk, resolved to stifle in employment the oppressive sense of loneliness which deepened, as the wan grey autumn twilight closed around her.

Solitude was not her appointed destiny however, on that afternoon, for almost before she had resumed the pen, the little maid who was her sole attendant came to ask whether Miss Beverley might be admitted. Consent was given, and immediately Geraldine entered with a half apology for the intrusion. She should not detain Miss Lane more than an instant, but she had called to inquire if she might choose a volume from the Lending Library, since she had not outlived her fondness for juvenile literature.

ઃઃ

"With pleasure, only you will find the whole collection rather childish," said Miss Lane, leading her guest to an old-fashioned bookcase. "The fairy tales are on this upper shelf, while travels and adventures fill the next. The third is piled with stray numbers of Magazines, and on the lowest is a curious miscellany which Miss Mabel has not yet found time to classify."

"May I have two?" asked Geraldine, diving amid the unassorted mass with somewhat of the zest of an explorer. "Here are Monro's

Allegories, and here the Works of Mercy,' titles which I have often noticed on the list of Masters' publications. I feel exactly like a wilful child, inclined to say I shall have neither unless you will give me both.” Miss Lane laughed, and explained that two Library books belonged by right to every family in the parish, but Miss Beverley might treble the allowance if she pleased. Geraldine seemed disposed to take advantage of this licence, for she speedily appropriated "Stories for the Fasts and Festivals," and "Tales of Kirkbeck," apparently setting great value on the latter acquisition.

"Pray let me send them for you to Content," said Miss Lane courteously. "Paddy Dawes is a good trustworthy lad, and he must pass your house on his way home from school."

"Many thanks," replied Geraldine, "but I had rather keep possession of my prizes. I feel largely in your debt for such a store of pleasant recreation."

"Can you really find amusement in nursery literature ?" asked Miss Lane, incredulously. "I can understand the charm of a romance or poem, but I do not see how grown persons can bend their minds to anything so very infantine as most of the works you have chosen."

"My object is precisely to unbend the mind, as we must all do occasionally," replied Geraldine.

"But do you not find that the subjects are too trifling to fix your attention?" asked Miss Lane.

"On the contrary, I become quite absorbed in them, and draw from such sources more real refreshment than I find in any other form of fiction."

"Then you cultivate this taste for your own sake, not that you may direct the reading of the young ?"

tr

"No; I cannot lay claim to such philanthropy," said Geraldine; were I averse to the pursuit, I may hope I should persevere from pure benevolence, but really I have not been tested, for duty and inclination certainly go hand in hand."

"You regard it as a duty then?" resumed Miss Lane, and her expression showed that Geraldine had at length touched the true chord.

'It appears to me a very useful branch of education," was the answer. "It helps us to sympathize with children, and enables us often to counsel, warn, or guide them indirectly."

"Were I sure that it would tend to qualify me for a teacher I

should follow your example," said the conscientious governess, "only I should expect to find the task a very irksome one.

دو

"That I can quite imagine," observed Geraldine, "for my own fancy is peculiar. But, dear Miss Lane, surely after fatiguing work, an invalid should study relaxation !"

"I had rather not waste time," was the decisive answer, "and I am glad to have found a manner of redeeming those long hours of weakness which have hitherto seemed nearly profitless. Perhaps I may be able to decide upon the merits of a story-book when too weary and ill for a severer mental strain."

"Undoubtedly," said Geraldine, "but you admit one may find pleasure in the exercise of the imagination. Do you not think there are useful ends to be attained by a familiarity with the fictitious writings of the age?"

"Surely not," said Miss Lane severely, "if you include under that term the vapid nonsense with which our sensation-novelists fritter away their own best energies, while enervating the minds of their readers."

"You can scarcely feel more strongly on that point than I do,” replied Geraldine. "I referred rather to those simple sketches of domestic life with which the Press has latterly abounded."

"But they depict home-cares under an ideal aspect and are thus apt to mislead the young. At least it seems to me that such must be the case," added Miss Lane with candour, "for to speak truly I have no experience of them upon which to base my judgment."

"Then you would be surprised at all the hints upon common-place subjects which such books contain," was Geraldine's reply. "I am indebted to one for a fund of information with regard to several branches of parish-work. Two years since I gleaned from a second, a more practical knowledge of housekeeping than I had ever previously acquired, while a third furnished me with an entire set of rules for regulating time, and introducing system into the most desultory life. You cannot think what an assistance that tale was to me; I may say it has been the standard of my lesser daily actions, ever since its first perusal."

"Only the circumstances of imaginary characters can seldom be exactly like one's own," Miss Lane persisted.

"Never perhaps quite the same," admitted Geraldine, "but they may be highly suggestive. The seed of an idea may strike deep root, till nurtured by reflection it brings forth the fruit of some holy and

virtuous resolve, adapted to emergencies never contemplated by the author."

“But I can rarely go abroad to visit in the parish, and I have no sphere for housekeeping," pursued Miss Lane; "so, after all, how could such knowledge be available to me?"

"Excepting that it might assist the children who are one day to be wives and mothers," replied Geraldine with hesitation, for she was timid about even appearing to advise those who were her superiors in age.

"It might," Miss Lane said musingly, "only they would be sure to skim the solid passages in favour of the entertaining."

"The lesson is for the most part cleverly interwoven with the narrative," answered Geraldine, "and besides, since the young will indulge in fiction, might not the supervision of their elders be at least a safeguard ?"

Miss Lane was not ready to gainsay this implied assertion, and Geraldine's skilful diplomacy appeared likely to win the cause. To her it must be owned the welfare of the rising generation was just then a secondary object when compared with the relief of their instructress. Certainly, as Miss Beverley remarked, boys and girls would con fairylore while in the nursery, and other forms of idle vain romance when they emerged from childhood. This universal tendency might spring from the perversity of human nature, but it was a fact nevertheless, and as such, Miss Lane prepared to cope with it. An hour of every day was thenceforth set apart for amateur revision of the most impartial and uncompromising type. The aid of sorcery was unneeded to predict that for her there would be no venial sins of authorship; that not even the smallest outrage against English grammar would escape the stroke of that relentless editorial pen.

Meanwhile as it was really growing late, Geraldine took leave, after promising to send one of her favourite stories at an early opportunity. Accordingly, on that same evening, while Miss Lane was lingering over her solitary tea, the little housemaid, Janet, entered with a note and parcel from Content. Both were sealed and addressed with the most exquisite neatness and care, as though the lender would fain testify respect even by such slight outward tokens. The books proved to be 'Katherine Ashton" and "The Experience of Life," together with "The Use of Sunshine," a sweet touching chronicle of parish work, amid the wild scenes of an Irish mountain village. The lines enclosed