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worthy.' She had brought a numerous family into the world, and content with that portion of her maternal duty, had at once subsided into an invalid, interesting to no one but herself and absorbed in the care of her own health and the nursing of her own nerves. The Doctor (whose tender solicitude for the fretful fancies of other ladies had earned for him many a 'one pound one') had very little commiseration to bestow on the wife of his bosom. In the early days of her chronic invalidism, he had looked upon her as a speci men; studying her curiously, if not lovingly; but after awhile, having committed the catalogue of her diseases to memory, he ceased to refer to it, thus adding another, and a daily recurring one, to her long list of personal grievances.

The girls, thanks to their having been born and raised in the atmosphere of complaints and camphor julep, were spared any anxiety on the score of their parent's sufferings; looking upon her condition as the normal

one of middle-aged ladies, who having conscienciously done their husbands and the state good service in their time, sink afterwards (and according to the laws of nature) into inactivity and decay. Their world, that is to say, their companions and familiar friends, confidentially stigmatized them as utterly selfish and incurably heartless; pitying greatly the amiable and deserted mother, left by those giddy, thoughtless girls' to the enjoyment' of her own ill health, and the depressing study of her favourite authors, id est, the Buchans,' 'Reeces,' and 'Grahams,' whose Medicine made Easy' have long been the solace of many an ailing and apprehensive female.

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Helen was the first of a second instalment of family blessings which made their appearance after a respite of some half-dozen years had been mercifully accorded to the mourning mother of many children. She was not welcomed warmly; not so warmly indeed as a little stranger (who might in time become

a friend) had a right to expect; moreover she was a troublesome child, petulant and vociferous, requiring an amount of attention that was rarely paid her, and receiving more cuffs than caresses from the elder sisters, whose maternal instincts had yet to be developed. Both as an infant and as she grew to child's estate, Helen Langton may fairly be said to have been what is called 'neglected.' To teach her was no one's particular business, and thus she went her way; picking up her small mental living by such scraps (not always of the wholesomest description) as fell in her way, and finding no favour with the elders and betters, to whom she was but little inclined to order herself either lowly or reverently.

It was perhaps well for the girl, that when she had arrived at the age of ten, an orphan boy, Mrs. Langton's nephew, was received into the Doctor's house, there to pass the holidays allowed by the head of the seminary for young gentlemen' where he received his education. He was a lank, ugly lad, with sharp

VOL. I.

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bones and a hungry face, and was besides sandy-haired and freckled; but, unprepossessing as was his appearance, Helen took kindly to him, and was moreover grateful and attentive when the boy, whose love of reading was beyond his years, put books into her hands, and, pitying her ignorance, taught her how to learn.

There was a something in the nature of Edward Burrowes that led him to fraternize with the neglected little cousin, whose frank nature and robust and rosy beauty formed so strong a contrast to his own scant personal gifts and many shortcomings.

To a woman it is a great curse to know no 'natural fear;' and keenly did Helen feel this truth, when in after years she stood alone before the tribunal of the world's opinion; but as a fearless child she was very happy; happy especially in her protection of the friendless boy who clung to her, as the feeble will to the energetic and self-confiding.

With her cousin Edward's help, and through

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her own keen desire for the kind of reading which pleased her fancy, Helen amassed in her young mind a good store of information. is true that she could never hope to become either that ingenious piece of mechanism, an accomplished young lady, or that anomalous and graceless thing, a 'learned girl;' but she had grown to love reading for its own sake, and had also begun to appreciate the beauty of high thoughts clothed in immortal versefeeding on the melody of poetry, as on sweet - and intellectual music. But perhaps what the child enjoyed the most, were truthful records of perils encountered in wild wildernesses, far away among the heathen savages of distant lands, where adventurous explorers, wandering into tangled jungles, rouse the startled wild beast from his lair, and make him feel man's sovereignty. Of bold men such as these, Helen, as she sat entranced over her semi-childish books, would make heroes, worshipping them as female creatures will; whether the foe their gods have con

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