And so she might, if she had been going a little higher; but at Cousin Widgery's it was only a stone-coloured silk, a little loose in the waist, to be sure, but that was better than if, like most things in its recipient's life, it had been a good deal inclined to pinch.

The thought of the handkerchiefs being an unpleasant one, it brought Miss Yetton round at once to be cheerful again, and she remained so through everything that followed until she arrived at Miss Widgery's, and was shown her room and the dress hanging in her closet. Although to many persons a thing of that sort would not seem overwhelming, yet it is universally acknowledged that circumstances alter cases, and the fact was, that Miss Yetton, although she had passed a little more than half the span allotted to mortal life, had possessed in the whole of that time but one silk dress, a changeable green and purple with a good deal of lustre, and willed to her by an aunt of a naturally uncomfortable temper, whom she had nursed without a murmur through an illness of thirteen months. That dress was Miss Yetton's stand-by for nearly fifteen years, and as it had a remarkable way of freshening on the wrong side, was turned a good many times. But all things will come to an end in this world, and the day arrived when with mingled feelings she sat herself down to work the best breadths into a quilt. These things being so, the sight of the new one, and hearing Miss Widgery say that it was the merest trifle, but that she did not want to spare her to any mantua-maker while she stayed-she wanted her all to herself and she hoped very much it would fit," and when she got the dust off, would she come down-stairs?—all this was a drop too much, and she felt the fountain beginning to bubble up. So although she was quite short, and the four-post bedstead very high, she managed to seat herself on the foot of it, a position she always took when she meant fully to enjoy letting her feelings take possession of her. But in another moment she realised that this time it positively wouldn't do, she must keep her handkerchiefs fresh; so she gave herself a little shake, which was her way of bringing herself to hear reason, and, slipping down from the bed, smoothed her face and ran down-stairs to find Miss Widgery.

For the next few days pleasures came so thick and fast, that if Miss Yetton had not gradually succeeded in bracing herself against them she would have cried all the time; but as it was, when Miss Widgery, having fastened the last brooch, came into the parlour on Thanksgiving evening, she found her and the stone-coloured silk there, smooth-faced and shining alike.

"Dear Cousin Widgery!" she said, getting up and turning slowly round and round, like a revolving lay figure-"you must see how elegantly it fits, and how I always am provided for! But I shall never be able to repay you!"

No one could have imagined the mental conquest Cousin Leafy had achieved before she was able to speak of anything so delightful. and at the same time keep a smile on her face and her handkerchief dry in her pocket. For in spite of all the discipline of the past week, the moment she opened her eyes that morning, and realised that it was Thanksgiving-day, she felt the fountain beginning to bubble again in a way that was almost irresistible.

"So happy!" she said to herself," and so provided for! Just as I always am, and so surprising! I never shall get over being surprised if I live to be a hundred years old! Now, Leafy Yetton, you're not going to give way! It does not look well, and that handkerchief ought to last till church time. You'd a great deal better dress yourself as fast as you possibly can!"

With her toilet for a weight on the escape valve, Cousin Leafy succeeded in confining her feelings for that time; but when she slipped away upstairs after breakfast, to say her prayers and read a psalm suited to the day, the pressure overcame her for a few moments; she got up on the foot of the bed once more, and the handkerchief was thoroughly disposed of. She had a good deal of trouble in church also, although she found more there to divert her mind from reflection upon her blessings. So long as the eloquence of the preacher could hold her thoughts to the shocking characteristics of public men, and the inevitable rupture with England in default of the policy he recommended, she did beautifully; but the moment they wandered to the goodness of Providence toward all men, and her own present situation in the Widgery pew, and so provided for, bubble, bubble, threatened the fountain again. Still, when Cousin Leafy was once really determined she overcame every. thing, and so it was with a smile as bright and dry as the sun on a July hay-field that she told Miss Widgery she should never be able to repay her.

"Don't speak of it," said Miss Widgery-"I told you it was nothing, and only think how you would have been taken up with a dressmaker. But I am glad to see it is a little loose-my father always considered a tight dress so very unhealthy."

Then they heard a soft little movement at the door-handle, very much as if a pussy-cat had laid a touch upon it, and then a feeling, rather than a sound, of some one gliding in.

"Good evening, my dears! I hope you find yourselves well this evening." It was only Aunt Esther, coming down from the West Garden chamber with her cap-strings tied peacefully under her chin, and her half-mitts on her hands, ready to pull on a little whenever she said anything. Aunt Esther was so little and so light, and looked so much as though you could lift her up on the palm of your hand, that no one would ever have guessed she had

been one of the weights in her business community fifty years before women were supposed capable of such a thing. But so she had, and her prosperity was only interrupted by the misfortune of numbering among her other possessions a brother, who would not have been a man if he could have seen property in her hands without conceiving the idea that he could manage it for her better than she could for herself. As soon as he had persuaded her to that effect, he succeeded in doing it so thoroughly that there was nothing left for Aunt Esther further than to spend the rest of her days in visiting one relative after another, and waiting meekly and patiently until she should go to that treasure where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt. The Jews, it is said, were accustomed to speak of three heavens: the first, the atmosphere above us; the second, Paradise; and the third, the immediate abode of the Invisible. And though nothing could have horrified Aunt Esther more than to be compared in any way to a Jew, she certainly did make a little heaven of the atmosphere about her; and for the rest, her heart was centred for the present on an earthly Paradise, and for the future on her celestial home. England, strange as it may seem, was Aunt Esther's Paradise. Ten years following the shock of her brother's success had been passed there, immersed in deeds of charity and grace among the poor; and now, by some psychological movement not necessary to explain, the experiences of her former life seemed blotted from her memory, even the present seemed shadowy and dim, and those ten years the only time she had ever really lived.

Before Miss Widgery and Miss Yetton had a moment to inform her, for the third time that day, that they were very well indeed, the guests of the evening began to arrive, and there was such a bustle in the hall it seemed there must be a dozen there at once. But it was only Major Chattagee and Mrs. Allibone, and the Major getting his gold-headed cane into the rack, and handing over to Mrs. Allibone the extra shawl he always brought for her, and declaring she had made a mistake, it was not half thick enough, and Mrs. Allibone telling him he knew nothing whatever about it, the thermometer was seventy at that very hour, and a moment later she came into the room leaning on his arm, and telling Miss Widgery how very near she had come to passing the house by mistake.

"On account of the knobs, you know, my dear; entirely on account of the knobs! I never missed anything so in my life, and I am sure nothing will ever reconcile me to the change, if I live twice as long over again."

The Widgery house had been guarded and individualised ever since it stood by a spear-pointed iron fence, every particular shaft

of which pierced and held aloft, like a South American orange on a fork, a solid ball of brass. These brass balls, though by no means typical of any family quality, were quite a centre of family pride, and it had been always the duty of Miss Widgery's housemaid, soon as they caught the lustre of the rising sun, to give them still an additional one by polishing the whole row, from beginning to end. Whether she rewarded Miss Widgery's patience with her openly encouraging a "follower" by complaining to him that she found this a hardship during the winter months will probably never be known, but one January morning, when Miss Widgery looked out of the window, instead of the usual glittering array, she saw only a black and stately row. of funeral plumes. She would have sent at once to the State Assayer to inquire what chemical should be used to remove the paint, had the question been one of science alone, but the discovery that she had required of a dependent anything felt as a hardship was so distressing to her that she was thankful to leave them as they were. So she only replied that one must expect to meet with a change now and then in a lifetime; and then more people came, and although, as Miss Widgery had said, only "a very few," there certainly seemed to be a great deal of noise in the room. Every one had congratulations to present, and Aunt Esther had to say to each, with the soft little undulations of emphasis she always used, that she "hoped they found themselves well, this evening," and then, as it was their way to find an enthusiasm for everything, they seemed to have a great deal to say to each other-though in a way that seemed very new and peculiar to Miss Yetton, it was all so different from an apple-bee or a quilting. So she established a seat a little aside, as a post of observation from which she might make a few minutes' study of tactics before entering the field.

Miss Widgery was in excellent spirits, as every one had come with the exception of Mrs. Dr. Collycibber, and she had still some hope of seeing her, the Doctor had given so encouraging an answer when asked if she were not coming: "I fear not, madam. But it will be, I assure you, an involuntary absence upon her part. A slight difficulty, not anticipated, intervened, throwing so dubious an aspect upon her movements that she would not permit me to await them. It is still possible, however, that she will be able to adjust the unfavourable circumstances, and I shall prove only a forerunner, after all."

A person who had not the happiness of a familiar acquaintance with the Doctor might possibly imagine they detected a tone in his remarks which did not really exist there at all; and the impression would be due entirely to the portly grandeur of his form, his full rotundity of tone, and the majestic movements of his organs of

speech, for none of which peculiarities he was in any way responsible. And as he had passed so much of his life in his library as to limit his reading very much to books, it happened quite naturally that he spoke their language with more ease than the vernacular of his less frequent companions.

As if to make amends for the disappointment about his wife, the Doctor had brought with him a friend, whom he begged to introduce as a friend newly come, and intending to devote a short period of time to the vicinity.

"Mr. Newlicome," said Miss Widgery, with a bow of her most stately hospitality, and added that any friend of the Doctor's was assured of a welcome among her own, but that they were all so very much used to each other as to make a visitor from the outside world a most acceptable addition to the number.

"Only a few hours ago, madam," replied the gentleman, and the Doctor laid his finger cautiously on his ear, by way of informing Miss Widgery that his friend was exceedingly deaf. This seemed particularly unfortunate, as, judging from a pair of tinted glasses which he wore, he suffered at the same time from his eyes. But before Miss Widgery had time for any inquiries, Mrs. Allibone had something very important to say to her, and the Major moved away rather regretfully to have a few words with the Doctor.

The Major and Mrs. Allibone were well preserved specimens in real life of what is called in poetry the might have been; that is to say, they had been lovers in their early youth, and met again after a perverse union with other partners had surrounded the Major's florid face with a rim of silver curls and tied a widow's cap under the chin of Mrs. Allibone, only to find themselves lovers still. But although the great severer of bonds had set them both free, and she freely averred she loved him as well as ever. marry him she would not, protesting that it was absurd to begin life all over again, like young people, at their age. So the Major had been obliged to content himself for some twenty years with the position of an acknowledged lover, and pick up such crumbs of comfort as he might in attending her wherever she went, and playing cribbage with her till precisely eleven every night.

The Doctor's apologies for his wife were scarcely concluded when the door opened, and it proved, as he had said, he was only a forerunner, after all, for Mrs. Collycibber came in, wearing the inevitable purple flower in her cap, and looking, as she always did, the perfection of nicety in every respect. She sent one little nod of recognition, like an electric current, round the circle, and then made her way directly to Miss Widgery.

"So sorry," she said, "to be behind every one else;" but she was sure Miss Widgery would excuse it if she knew what a dreadful