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I could, and to interest myself with something else."

"Just so; recollect this for your next trouble, whenever it may come; if you can remedy the evil, do so at once; and if not, bear it patiently, and occupy yourself incessantly."

"I shall be very much occupied on Monday, papa; I shall have my aquarium to pack, and my zoophytes; besides all the usual packing of lesson books and music, and clothes."

"All the better, dear Caroline; we shall start very early on Tuesday, so pack all on Monday."

Returns to her Home-Flora's Self Reproach-Conscience.
Awakened-The Signals Resumed-Confession and Recon-

ciliation.

SAROLINE had some doubts about going out for the early walk on Monday; she thought that Flora would scarcely walk again with the Miss

Seymours after their rudeness to her; and still she might not like so immediately to fall back on her old friend, and so confess how evanescent had been the professed love of Augusta and Harriet; and she thought that she should really feel very awkward for Flora at their first meeting. On the other hand, if she did not go out, and Flora should be waiting for her on the bridge, intending to talk to her of all that had passed, and to say something of sorrow for her desertion, how sulky

and unforgiving would it appear not to be there to welcome her! So, at last, Caroline determined to go out as usual, to linger a little on the bridge, and then, should no Flora appear, to pursue her walk alone. There was to be no walk on Monday afternoon, which she meant to employ in preparing her

treasures.

When Caroline left the house for her last walk by the shore, she felt that she should quite regret the lovely morning air, especially on those days when the sea was quiet and the sky unclouded. "It is really rather strange," she thought, "that I should have liked this place so much, after all; I shall not be afraid of leaving home again, for I see that new things and new ideas can even prevent one from feeling a sorrow so much as one would do at home, in accustomed places. Oh, how happy I shall be if Flora comes to me again this morning."

She loitered long on the bridge, till her hope died away; and then she went down on the sand, and walked to and fro quietly, until she thought her usual time out of doors had passed.

Flora, on her part, had had many debates with herself, whether or not to go out to meet Caroline. She was not aware that the scene on the sands had been witnessed by any one, and she shrunk from the shame of acknowledging how much mistaken

she had been in Augusta and Harriet. Then it seemed so cowardly to run back immediately to Caroline, as if she could not bear to be alone; and she rather dreaded that the Seymours should again see her with Caroline, for though she felt their conduct to be despicable, she had not the courage to feel indifferent to their ridicule. So she stayed at home, blaming her friends, blaming herself, and half angry with poor Caroline, because she had done nothing amiss in the matter; on the contrary, had shewn her judgment to be the best of the two.

At luncheon Mrs. Staunton asked if Flora had walked with Caroline in the morning; and on receiving a reply in the negative, she expressed some surprise, adding "I should have thought, Flora, that the very unkind and rude conduct of your new friends yesterday, would have shewn you how truly inferior they are to the steady and warm-hearted companion of your life; and that you would have had the sincerity at once to have gone to Caroline, and begged her to forgive and overlook your behaviour to her, and to allow you again to be her friend!"

Only one part of what her mother said attracted Flora's attention.

"Their unkind and rude conduct, mamma; how did you know? Who told you of it?"

"My own eyes, Flora; Mrs. Leslie and I were on

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153

the Spa bridge with Caroline, we saw you go to the shore on your pony, evidently looking for those who had forgotten you, and then we saw them come up to you, and when they observed your intention to join them, we saw them carelessly take leave of you, as much as to say, now we have better companions, we do not want you! Certainly we did not hear the words that passed, but I am sure they must have been of cutting coldness, to judge from your indignant ascent of the hill on your way home!"

Flora coloured with vexation.

"Then Mrs. Leslie and Caroline also saw me left there. Oh, how I wish we had never come to this nasty Scarborough. Caroline will so triumph over me, for she said at first that the Seymours looked haughty and conceited; and now she has seen them treat me with scorn. How glad she must have felt at witnessing my discomfiture."

"I am sure that Caroline has no such feelings; she expressed the utmost sympathy with you, and indignation against them; and she begged me to allow her to come here for you, that you might not feel yourself neglected and left by all! I would not hear of her doing so, because I wished you to suffer what you had inflicted on her. But you scarcely seem to think that you have treated her ill."

"Did she, indeed, seem to feel sorry that I was