Now I was to see how people lived and loved, who having journeyed through the valley of youthful hopes, and felt many things wither that they touched, had yet sown seed which was now fructifying. Calm judgment and good common sense lay hidden in Mr. Graham's character, beneath many pretty flowers of fancy and romance. It might be the possession of a wife so fair and graceful, that made these flowers spring and flourish, but they seemed to gild their days with perpetual sunshine. sunshine. Manly, straightforward, and honest, Mr. Graham was a leading man in the neighbourhood, courted and esteemed by all. Like a boyish lover at home, he crowned his Selina with roses of love every hour, and lost none of his manliness and spirit, however fond the act. He was a lover now, doubly, trebly so, to what I had seen him; yet this love seemed but to make him more diligent in every other work of life-more desirous to ennoble it, by ennobling himself-more anxious to hallow it, by good and noble deeds-more worthy the possession of it, by the gratitude he showed to the Great Bestower. In such an atmosphere, a heart like Selina's expanded to overflowing. The remembrance of the past was no longer painful; it was all swallowed up in the bliss of the present. She was loved, honoured, nay adored, as the Household Divinity, by one whom the general opinion of the world (and most just is the voice of the multitude, when time sanctions the first cry) had elevated to a high position among his fellow-mortals. She began to feel that self-respect, which forbids the entrance into the heart of aught mean and worldly, while it encourages inward rectitude, and strict adherence to all that may make the soul pure and true. With this feeling came all the train of angels' thoughts, bearing down and sweeping from before them the dust and rubbish of earthly motives; making the pathway of the once wayward, childish Selina, bright with the deeds she performed on her journey through life-holy with the example she endeavoured to set. It was pleasant to live with these two people, encouraging each other in their different labours by the love and devotion they paid each other. Yet vying in acts of kindness and charity—the weaker vessel steadying itself on the firm basis of the stronger one, emptying out all its sweet pity and love, in the full knowledge that the strength of mind and more tried religion of the one would absorb the superfluity, and send forth the love, pure and strong. CHAPTER V. "Pour out thy love like the rush of a river Through the burnt sands that reward not the giver, Scatter thy life, as the summer shower's pouring! Look to the Life that was lavished for thee." ANON. THE change was not pleasant, going from the fresh, healthy atmosphere of love and sense, to piquet." I was necessitated to submit to great doses of 'piquet"-in fact, to study that intricate game, take a diploma out in it, and master it alto gether, so that the pupil might outdo the teacher. I must prove myself a superior character by some means; and if I had none other but piquet, for piquet I must be thankful. Troubled and bewildered were my thoughts, occupied in learning the character of "the Lady of Glynne." She liked excitement. In fact, little doses of it were the only exercise she took. She was quite lively for some time after an attack made upon me, in her presence, by the nurse. This woman accused me of being the cause why she and her coadjutor were to be dimissed. My look of half wonder, half indifference, made "the Lady" laugh: the nurse's unrefined anger had the same effect. The pleasure of the scene was soon spoilt to her by the nurse perceiving, almost immediately, that I was really ignorant of her dismissal. So she turned her anger on "the Lady." This completely altered the whole phase. What was before laughable, was now "extraordinary insolence"-what was amusing, was pronounced "insufferable impudence." "The Lady" was not to be offended with impunity. She was superior to any weakness, any |