always looked up to her; but now, he was stronger, wiser, and richer than she was; he was free, and she had bound herself with many ties; moreover, a certain force of character which had once obtained dominion over him was softened by a long course of attention to a singular man, who required a great deal of managing, by her love to, and self-denial for the sake of her many children, and by the tender trust that both husband and children reposed in her.

He presently answered, without the least shadow of blame in his manner; but she was painfully aware how much he pitied her, as if she had missed the very best blessing out of her life; he "wondered how she could have got on without it."

Grace hardly knew; she had always loved this brother exceedingly, and the discovery of such a difference between them gave her keen pain - more pain at first than it did to be sure that she had left no place for God in her world. She had hoped that Dick would help her to manage her great boys, they were twins, and were thirteen years old; she wanted him to persuade Gilbert to put them to a better school, and to advise her what to do about money affairs. She had no notion of getting help or strength from the Unseen; and this brother of hers, now that he was come and would help her, had matter in his thoughts that she could not share; in talking with him, she must have reservations just as she had with her husband; she had love from her husband, but not real companionship, and now she felt that she could not have it from Dick either.

Her schemes also were out of place for him. She had taken pains to make his coming known, and the whole neighbourhood had called, which Dick found rather a bore; then she had arranged a pic-nic, an archery party, a dinner; other people had done the like, and now she felt sure that some of the families with whom she should most have liked to be allied were not at all to his taste; moreover, she could now do nothing with him, her little manœuvres would be evident to his experienced eyes; and whereas she wanted him to improve his position or his fortune by marriage, his head was full of schemes for improving the positions of the crowds below him; as for any notion of rising higher, he thought himself already at the top. He had read what was best worth reading, he had seen what was most worth seeing, and he was an Englishman of good estate, what could he want more! Why he wanted a wife, and he meant to choose himself one; and he wanted a house, he was

going to build himself one, and in that house he meant to rule.

"Marry!" exclaimed Gilbert, when talking the matter over with his wife; "not he; he expects too much. In the first place he wants a religious wife."

"Of course," said Grace; "and a cultivated woman."

"And one of a sweet and compliant temper," continued Gilbert; "for Master Dick has old-fashioned notions. He made me blush yesterday, I declare, for he asked some questions, and when I referred him to you What,' he answered, do you allow your wife to arrange these affairs?' I replied as became me, that I hoped I knew my place."

"No, you don't," said Grace; "Dick is quite right. I wish you did know your place and would take it.""

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I can't, my dear; you wouldn't let me." "Try me," said Grace. "Give orders yourself, and see them carried out.”

"It's all very well to talk," answered he, carelessly, then suddenly checking himself, he added, with mock gravity, "and now I think of it, I always do."

Really, Gilbert!" exclaimed his wife.

Why, I thought that was what you wanted me to say. You should have heard Denver's panegyric on his wife this morning; it made everyone laugh, it was so unexpected."

Gilbert had been a guest that morning at a wedding breakfast. The host was not the bride's father, and when the health of his wife was drunk he rose and returned thanks for her.

"It was a very neat speech," Gilbert said; "he attributed to her every virtue under the sun, and concluded thus: - She has shared my sorrows, doubled my comforts, andand,' looking round on his children, and trebled my expenses.'"

V.

A MONTH passed over the heads of the Richmond family: it was the month of August, and everything seemed to go so well with them, that they almost forgot the diminution of income no real comfort had been taken away. Laura was very happy in learning and practising her new duties; in fact, there is a natural pleasure in the exercise of everything which can be called handicraft. All children know this, and many grown-up, people. The possession of hammer and nails is delightful, as every one knows who has ever gone so far in the use

of them as to cover a box with chintz, or plan an ornamental curtain for a lookingglass. Laura fitted up her little room with all sorts of hooks and nails and brackets; and there she sat enjoying herself over her polishing operations, the arrangement of her china, and the getting up of frills and lace. She had expected that at first many remarks would have been made about her proceedings. She had also thought it likely that when they found how easy and pleasant the said occupations were, her sisters would, from time to time, have come in to help her with them. Nothing of the kind occurred. It is astonishing how soon people reconcile themselves to a convenient change, when once it comes into operation. The mother was reconciled at once; she respected and delighted in the feeling which had prompted Laura to move into the gap, and fill it up so pleasantly; she would not discourage her, nor rob her of the great good which she believed her to be deriving from her conscientious labour. She saw her looking well and happy, she knew Laura was not fond of society, and had often, even before there was any need for it, contrived excuses for keeping out of it. She therefore used no more pressure to make her go out than she had been accustomed to do. "I am not amused at parties," Laura would sometimes say; "I feel shy, and I am sure I am often in the way." "You will not cure shyness by keeping out of society altogether," the mother would answer, "and I think it is but right that you should accept one invitation in three.'

One invitation in three or four Laura accepted still, but instead of looking her best in society, talking her best, singing her best, as was the case with her sisters, the exact contrary came to pass. She was much the most important of the sisters when at home, in her brother's house, or among intimate friends; but in society she was of no importance at all. As for Josephine, she had intended to help Laura when first she entered on her new duties, but a change in the prospects of George Philpott enabled him to marry sooner than had been expected, and Josephine was looking forward to be a wife, in three months. She had, therefore, more than usual to do; and not only that, she now wished to think of Laura's conduct as little better than a freak, the indulgence of a peculiar fancy. "When I am gone," she argued, “mamma will be better off by all I cost her; she can then afford to have another servant, no doubt, and though my trousseau has to be provided at a particularly inconvenient time, it would be just as easy to

borrow money to have a servant during these three months, as for it: and but for Laura herself, and her queer determination, it must have been done, and then I should never have had the annoyance of thinking that perhaps George's sisters would find her out, and express their surprise and vexation."

Harriet, of course, could do nothing to help Laura; there were twice as many parties as usual, and she went to them all; she was an ornament wherever she appeared. Harriet accordingly found at first nothing to say; Laura dressed her hair for her, and did it most becomingly; it would never do to set her against so convenient an accomplishment, nor to let her think she ought not to stay at home and do what had to be done, for in that case some one else must undertake to do it. That was how Harriet argued just at first, and then she forgot all about it; took the whole matter for granted, and rang her bell for Laura to come to her and fasten up her hair just as she had formerly rung for Moxon. Laura on the other hand was extremely anxious that her sisters should not perceive in her any repentance or regret. She knew from various hints let fall by Grace, that Gilbert by no means thought well of his mother's affairs, and only hoped that she might have no further diminution of income before Josephine's marriage.

"After that," thought Laura, "mamma might again lose fifty or sixty pounds a year, and we could go on exactly the same and without any struggling, because that is just what Josephine costs her."

Several parties were now given by Mrs. Gilbert Richmond and other ladies. Laura seldom appeared at them, and Richard Vernon, though he took not the least interest in her, noticed the circumstance.

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Why does Laura go out so seldom, Miss Richmond?" he inquired.

"Oh," said Harriet, " with a foolish little feeling of shame, "I don't think Laura cares particularly about society."

"I wonder whether they push that girl into the background," thought Dick," or make a household drudge of her?"

Now Dick liked to be with the Miss Richmonds rather than with other girls in the neighbourhood. Josephine was going to be married; Harriet, to do her justice, had plenty of self-respect, and did not want to flirt with him; and Laura, a shy, soft-voiced, silent girl, would sit looking quietly on, not expecting, and evidently not desiring to be taken any notice of. Her shyness did not extend to him, that he observed at once; moreover, she did not want for penetration; he knew,

for he had seen it in her face, that she was much amused at the little attempts sometimes made to gain his attentions, and at his little attempts to get away from such girls as might happen to bore him. And she no more expected to engage his attention herself, than to find herself adored by the Great Mogul.

Dick had bought his sister a new boat, and when it arrived, he proposed to take her down the river in it. They were to drive home in his drag. She assented gladly, and added

"I told the Miss Grattans that we were going down some day this week, and they said they should be delighted to join us." "Oh," said Dick, who had foreseen this, and who disliked these two young ladies chiefly because his sister was always thrusting them in his way; "I asked your sistersin-law to go: the boat lies at their landing at the bottom of their orchard. I shall put them in, and drop down for you."

"Very well," said Mrs. Gilbert Richmond.

"I told them that, if you decided to go to-day, I would let them know," he continued, and off he presently set, taking three of the children with him.

These three consisted of Milly, who was about six years old; Reginald, a little boy who talked as if his mouth was full of plums; and the baby, who was nearly two years old, a young lady who made about ten words do the work of hundreds, and yet was applauded whenever she spoke, and very seldom misunderstood.

"Lolly," said the baby as her uncle carried her.

"She means that we're going to see Aunt Laura," observed the little girl.

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Lolly," repeated the baby, with a satisfied air. The baby was devoted to Laura: a practical mind will probably see reason enough for this in the fact that Laura now habitually spent her mornings in the little room which had been Moxon's. Cakes, figs, biscuits, and other delicacies were kept in it, and when the baby, having trotted out of the drawing-room window to Laura's window, had been lifted in, and kissed, and praised, and when she had been set down again, and had proceeded with great sagacity to a drawer containing good things, and had slapped it with the palms of her fat hands, and said, Lolly, open," Laura always did open it, exclaiming, "Clever little thing," and gave her something nice out of it to eat.'

Richmonds came to see their grandmother in the morning.

Of course it is not to be supposed that when Laura said, "Nobody shall know," she meant to include her nephews and nieces; for these little people were always cognisant of everything that went on in their grandmother's house. And even the baby, if she missed one of her aunts from the circle, would insist upon making a progress through the house in search of her, unless her absence had been accounted for in terms that the little creature could understand.

It is very certain, however, that many children have quite discretion enough not to talk of things which they have been told to keep to themselves; always supposing that the reasons for this reticence have been duly explained to them.

The elder children knew, because the matter had been explained to them, that their grandmother had not near so much money as formerly, that consequently she had one less servant, Aunt Laura washing the tea-things, &c.; but that they were not to talk about this, because their aunts did not wish it to be known. Accordingly, they never did talk about it out of the family. But then they regarded "Uncle Dick" one of the family; and once or twice had said things which rather surprised him.

as

That morning, when they entered the drawing-room from the garden, and had been informed by the housemaid that Mrs. Richmond and the young ladies were out, Dick was about to return, but the baby pulled him vehemently to the door; and when he took her up to carry her off she began to cry.

"She wants to find Aunt Lolly," said the

boy.

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Baby must see her aunts some other day," said Dick; "they are out."

"Aunt Lolly isn't out," said the boy with scorn. "Of course she never goes out in the morning, when she's got all that to do." "Yes, Miss Laura is at home," said Sarah, the housemaid; "but she's busy."

The baby by this time had struggled down, and got into the garden, and she was rnnning away as fast as her little fat legs could carry her.

Dick only staid to leave a message with the maid, and then he followed - passed the kitchen window, passed the window of the late Mr. Richmond's study, and came to another window, following the children. It was about two feet from the ground; and as he came up, the legs of the two elder ones were disappearing inside, and the baby was clamouring to be taken in also.

"Now, children," he heard Laura say, "how often have I told you not to come in by the window? Look at baby: she is stamping upon the carnations."

Dick then appeared. Laura was standing in the middle of the room, with a deal table before her. A small tub of hot water stood upon it, and she had just lifted a china cup form it, and was drying it with an affair which maids call a glass-cloth. Dick, seeing that she was not in a condition to shake hands with him, lifted his hat. Laura was adorned with a large white linen apron, and when she saw him she looked a little dismayed.

He, on the contrary, found nothing in her occupation to excite his attention. He had travelled long enough to see men and women do all sorts of things in all sorts of ways; so he lifted in the baby, and sitting down on the window-sill, with his legs among the carnations, began to talk about his proposed row down the river; and Laura, after a moment of hesitation, went on washing the breakfast-service, and hanging the cups upon a row of little hooks.

The baby was soon seated quietly on the floor, biting minute bits out of an apple with the whitest little teeth in the world; and the two other children began to do the honours of the place.

"This is where grandmamma keeps all her best things, Uncle Dick. Oh, grandma's got such beautiful plates, with birds on them."

And gradmamma's got a silver stag." "Indeed."

"Aunt Lolly, do show him the stag."

silver

"Presently," said Laura, smiling. "You shall see it presently, Uncle Dick. Oh, and grandmamma's got some silver tankards, too. We know when they're going to be used, don't we, Lolly? Uncle Dick, have you heard that we're going to be at the wedding breakfast? Grandmamma says we shall, all but baby; and it only wants nine weeks and a half to the wedding. Oh, I wish it would come to morrow."

"You shall come too, Uncle Dick, said the liberal-minded little boy, inviting him on the spot. "Oh, what fun it will be for Aunt Josey; and we shall go and stay in Aunt Josey's house. Lolly, when will it be your turn to be married ?"

"I don't know," said Laura, demurely, and not more put out of countenance than might have been expected.

"She can't be married," said Miss Milly, "till somebody comes to marry her; can you, Lolly?"

Laura had been startled into her first an

swer, but now she said nothing; and Dick made some slight observation, which was intended in her interest to divert the children's attention to something else. But when they had answered it, and a further question that he put, they returned to the attack.

"It won't be at all fair, then, if somebody doesn't come," said the boy, tumbling himself head over heels out of the window. Then, as if the suitability of the thing had suddenly struck him, he secured Dick by the legs, and exclaimed, "Why can't Uncle Dick marry her? Perhaps he came on purpose."

"No, he didn't," said Milly, "he came to see mamma; and perhaps Lolly doesn't wish "

Dick, with a countenance of the utmost possible redness, and literally held by the legs, did not know what to do or where to look.

"Oh, yes, she does. I know she does. Uncle Dick, dear, do marry Lolly,-do. She wants you to marry her so much, don't you, Lolly? and we want to go to the wedding."

Dick's self-possession so utterly failed him, that he sat stock still; and the ridiculous reason which came out as sufficient to bring him to this family arrangement struck him so forcibly, that in spite of himself he burst into an irresistible fit of laughing.

"Come along," he exclaimed, as soon as he could recover, "it's time we were off;" and he shook himself free of the boy's detaining arms, and was wondering how he could turn round and look at Laura, when, to his relief, he heard the door open and shut again. She was gone; and he wished and so did she, that she had had the sense and foresight to retire before.

"Well, I never did feel so utterly put out of countenance!" said Dick, marching across the garden, with his face still all aglow. "The only drawback to being with children is that they now and then say such disastrous things. Wants to marry you so much!' Well, if it had been said of any of the other girls in the neighbourhood! But this particular one, if she has such a wish, has certainly the grace to keep it to herself. I know nothing of her; and, upon my word, it was too bad. I must be particularly civil to her this afternoon."

Here the children overtook him; and he told them a story all the way home by way of making them forget this matrimonial conversation.

In the afternoon Laura did not appear. "I wonder," thought Dick, "whether she

Probably she was; for the next day he met her suddenly in the road, and she was so painfully embarrassed that though he greeted her with the most successful air of unconsciousness, she stammered, blushed, and could not look at him. So in pity to her he was obliged to take his leave, instead of turning and walking a little way with her as he had intended.

She was very successful after that in keeping out of his way; did not enter her brother's house, nor sit in the drawing-room at home, lest he should come in. Yet at the end of a week, when he did encounter her, she was still shy, still abashed.

"Poor little girl!" he thought (Laura was as tall as most other women). "What is to be done? I must manage to restore her self-respect if I can.'

"

But for several days after this he did not see her, and then she dined at her brother's house, and avoided him with such bashful persistency, that he was afraid every one would notice. It was a very real feeling, that was evident, and it seemed to grow upon her. So Dick revolved the matter in his mind, and decided that he would speak to her about it in a plain, simple manner, just as if he was a relative and much older than herself-would assure her that he knew the children had quite misinterpreted her sentiments and talk afterwards about other things till she was again at her ease.

This conversation was to begin somewhat in this way he was to remark that children often make ridiculous speeches, and she, knowing what was coming, was to turn her young face away and blush. He knew exactly how she would look when she blushed; but he did not care for anything but to set matters right; he felt no other interest in the conversation that he thus rehearsed beforehand.

"As our little niece and nephew did the other day," he meant to add, and then he was to tell her how absurd they had both been to be so sensitive about it; "for his part it was only for the moment, but as she felt the matter still," &c., &c.

And then he meant to say things which would show her that he was man of somewhat nature age who had seen a good deal of life, and she was a young, inexperienced creature," and he could assure her that she ought never to bestow another thought upon this nonsense, and she was to say she would not, and they were to part friends.

"Only," thought Mr. Richard Vernon, "it behoves me to be careful not to produce

recting the first." If he was making a mistake himself in so thinking, he should not be severely blamed, for several women as young and fairer than Laura had helped him in the making of it, and were helping him still.

So he watched his opportunity, and one morning, when Laura's mother and her sisters were out, he again approached her window from the garden, taking care to sing an air as he came along which should prevent his taking her at unawares.

"Oh, Laura," he said, when he reached the open window, "I am so glad to find you here; I wanted to have a little friendly talk with you." Laura seemed overcome with bashfulness, and a delicate bloom overspread her cheeks and forehead, which very much improved her face. She had a number of spoons and forks, and some oldfashioned silver utensils spread before her, and seemed to be brushing one, and an other, with some crimson powder spread upon a thing like a highly-magnified toothbrush.

She looked up when Dick appeared, but she made him no answer whatever, and he sat down on the window-sill as before, with his feet among the flowers, and began to talk first on indifferent subjects with the most frank, friendly, and unembarrassed manner possible.

Laura had the usual white apron with its large bib pinned before her; it made her slender figure look even more girlish than usual, and her shyness added to the effect. She could not dispense with her occupation, but while she answered Dick in monosyllables she went on with her polishing operations, her hands being covered with a pair of loose wash-leather gloves.

"A droll occupation," thought Dick, "but very becoming to her; I never saw her look half so well before."

At last he began to approach the subject which had brought him there.

"I wanted particularly to ask you to go to the Grattans' pic-nic to-morrow; I hope you will."

“I think I shall have an engagement at home," said Laura.

"It makes me so uncomfortable to see you hold aloof from all the little parties and amusements that that girls like," said Dick; " and to think that it is probably my fault, and that you continue to feel nervous because I was such a stupid fellow the other day, that I am come to apologise, and to say that I hope you will go as a particular favour to myself, and to say what-in fact,