a very tender conscience, but I do think it strange that he should have been so much agitated by what happened to-day. He spoke as if he had hardly been himself since that unlucky accident. I trust he is not overworking himself, or that he is not beginning in the fever."

That is the last letter which I remember reading out loud in our quiet evening conclave. The day after its arrival we were surprised by a second invasion from Morfa Mawr, which revolutionised our little world as completely as the first had done.

On coming home from our evening walk, Nesta and I learned that Lady Helen and Mr. Lester, who had come up from Morfa to spend a day or two with her in London, had called and spent an hour with our father during our absence. It was a real disappointment to Nesta and me to lose this chance of hearing the latest news of our mother and Rosamond; for our father was never a good person from whom to glean information at second hand, even when he was in his most talkative mood. On this evening our close cross-questioning seemed to worry him even more than usual. He was not cross, but he was evidently preoccupied. After prayers he

took me with him into the den to read over some exercises, and when my task was finished, I did not wish him good-night, for I saw he was by that time in a mood to talk to me.

'Janet," he began, when I had settled myself in my favourite place on a pile of dictionaries at his feet, "what a strange thing it is to see how one character acts upon another in the same way all through life. I have been accustomed to think myself a tolerably firm person, yet to-day I have fallen again under the influence of a will which, in old times, I found to be stronger than my own. A person, who has no right to control me, has come and informed me quietly of plans which he has formed for the disposal of myself and my family during the next few months, and I have found myself helplessly acquiescing in them. It is very humiliating: it shows how little years have improved me."

Papa, what has Mr. Lester persuaded you to do?"

"Ah! you are anxious, and want to bring me to the point at once, Janet. Now, I make a long preamble, because I am doubtful how you will look when the tale is told. Come, I will take courage.

My Janet is a sensible lassie; she knows that when a thing is done it is done, and that there is no use in making the worst of it."

"I will make the best of it."

"Thank you, my wise child, my counsellor. Well, Janet, you shall hear the whole story from beginning to end-my hopes first and then the disappointment.

"Since your mother left us I have been constantly thinking how we might gain from her hasty journey some advantage for her and you. She likes Morfa, and if she could have some of you with her, I think a prolonged visit there would do her good. I had planned to write to Hilary, and tell him to look out for some pleasant farmhouse near the sea, to which your mother might have gone as soon as Miss Lester could spare her. Then, as soon as the vacation commenced, I should have sent Nesta and Charlie to join her there, while you and I—"

"Ah, Janet! that was the cream of the plan. I thought I might have realised a day-dream in which I have indulged for several years. I meant to have taken you with me to Edinburgh to visit my relatives and old friends there. I should like you to see Dr. Allison and his family. They, and one or

two others I could name, would not like your dark face the less because it is so much like mine. Besides, Dr. Allison is, you know, a celebrated oculist, and, knowing something of our family constitution, and having averted the evil I dread from some of us who were threatened with it, he fancies-But I don't agree with him," my father said, interrupting himself, and putting his hand to his eyes. "In my case there is nothing to be done. Patience and submission-nothing but patience and submission."

"But everything ought to be tried," I said. "Papa, if that was your plan, I will not make the best of your giving it up."

"Stay, Janet; that is not the project from which I have been dissuaded; I had given up all thoughts of your and my journey to Scotland before I saw Mr. Lester. Read that letter, Janet, and you will understand why."

It was a short letter from Charlie's college tutor, enclosing the bills for the Easter term. I should not have been much wiser for looking at the items of a few words in my father's large scrawling hand at the end, had I not noted that the sum total was a hundred pounds more than he had calculated upon. I understood my father well enough to know that

any expression of indignation against Charlie would only aggravate his pain. I could not think of any reasonable excuse to make for Charlie's conduct, so I suppressed all remark upon it.

"Will this make it quite impossible for you to travel to Scotland, or to take lodgings at Morfa?" I asked.

"Could it not be managed for Nesta and Charlie to go to Morfa, and stay at Morfa Bawr with Hilary, while mamma remains at the Great House? There would only be the expense of the journey, and it would be such a delight to mamma. You and I could be happy at home together-very happy. You know you have promised to teach me Hebrew; I have quite made up my mind to learn, however much Mr. Armstrong may laugh at me."

"Well, Janet, that was just the arrangement I had thought out; I had determined that you and I, the two strong ones, should take the necessary privation on our broad shoulders, and smooth the way for the others as well as we could. I honour you, you see, my counsellor, by giving you the hardest lot. Do like such honour? It is what God often gives to His dearest children.'

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VOL. I.