chance of al

seen

s may turn i

nd a

namely, one romantic attachment and one comfortable friendship. Elisabeth was perfectly normal and

elegant women who appear so much deeper than they really are. All her life she had been inspiring devotion which she

story, but to the unromantic fact that among her score of lovers she had never found a man for whom she seriously cared. In a delicate and ladylike fashion she had flirted outrageously in her time; but she had always broken hearts so gently, and put away the pieces so daintily, that the owners of these hearts had never dreamed of resenting the damage she had wrought. She

, Elisabeth's sky was cloudless; if Anne sighed, Elisabeth's sky grew gray. The mere sound of Anne's voice vibrated thro

ied away by the glorious imagery of the Book of Isaiah, even when she did not in the least understand its meaning. But her favourite book was the Book of Ruth; for was not Ruth's devotion to Naomi the exact counterpart of hers to Cousin Anne? And she used to make up long stories in

feeling savours slightly of school-days and bread-and-butter; but there is also no doubt that a girl w

r romantic attachment; and the partner in that friendship

ting with children of Belial." In time she wrote to tell Richard that she was going to be married, and that she wished to cut off entirely all communication with her old home. After that, Richard lost sight of her for many years; but some time after his father's death he received a letter from Emily, begging him to come to her at once, as she was dying. He complied with her request, and found his once beautiful sister in great poverty in a London lodging-house. She told him that she had endured great sorrow, having lost her husband an

uncle in a square red house on the east side of Sedgehill High Street, exactly opposite to the Farringdons' lodge. It was one of those big, bald houses with unblinking windows, that stare at you as if they had not any eyebrows or eyelashes; and there was not eve

ble; hers was whether they were beautiful or ugly, pleasant or unpleasant. Consequently the two moved along parallel lines; and she moved a great deal more quickly than he did. Christopher had

ive her attention to the matter, she had much more comforting and beautiful thoughts than he had, which appeared rather hard. He was not yet old enough to know that this difference between them arose from no unequal division of divine favour, but was simply and solel

ree miles to the north of Sedgehill; and there and back he walked every day, wet or fine,

on in the holidays, when she was twelve and Christoph

d Christopher, standing s

see it," Elisa

hing would induce me to go, or to let you go either; but I'm

it is interest. I'm so frightfully interested in things; an

, what's more, if you saw it

t woul

h true masculine dulness of perception, confou

l ill," she replied apologetically; "no

sm that could pass unmoved through such physical and spiritual crises as these; but he was n

a rum little

id of me; but I thought we might pretend it was the executio

ago you were always bothering about heathen goddesse

d I do wish, when you are doing Latin and Greek at school, you'

I cou

e of the masters. The

e a duffer to suppose that clever men like schoolmasters both

s," Elisabeth hastened to justify herself; "but

asters are-much too clever to take any interest in girls' and women's concer

wing how beautiful it was. But Elisabeth knew, for she possessed an innate knowledge of many things which he would have to learn by expe

wicked of people to fall in

e silly, I should say,"

tales about it." This was a tremendous and unnatur

You don't read tales that Miss Farring

read tales that she ha

y tale till you have ask

thing as asking her first. Oh! Chris, you don't really t

ask." Christopher's sense of hon

ering about things being wrong, till you make them wrong. Now I hardly ever think of it; but I can't go on doing things after you've

lly sorry lo have riled

fall in love, and then you went and dragged Cousin Maria in. I wish I'd never asked you anything; I wish I'd never

hich Elisabeth was prone, and to condone one to which she was not

think of something to do to annoy you. I know what I'll do; I'll go b

owever, was frustrated; for Mrs. Bateson herself intervened between Elisabeth and her unholy desires, and entertained the latter with a plate of delicious bread-and-dripping instead. Finally, that young lady returned to her h

not bear to vex Elisabeth; yet Elisabeth's wishes and his own ideas of right were by no means always synonymous. His only comfort was the knowledge that his sovereign's anger was, as a rule, short-lived, and that he himself was indispensable to that sover

sabeth's pride could never stand in the way of her pleasure; Christopher's, on the contrary, might. It was a remarkable fact that after Christopher had reproved Elisabeth for some fault-which happened neither infrequently nor unnecessarily-he was always repentant and she forgiving; yet nine times out of ten he had been in the right and she in the wrong. But Elisabeth's was one of those exceptionally generous natures which can pardon the repro

ll be able to have a splendid sacrifice this afternoon. I've got some feathers to offer u

hy

as the stronger personality. It was because Elisabeth was so much to him that he now and then worried her easy-going conscience with his strictures; for, to do him justice, the boy was no prig, and would never have dreamed of preaching to anybody except her. But it must be remembered that Christopher had never heard of such things as spiritual evolutions and streams of tend

repeated Christopher, Elisabeth being so much absorb

seems so much more like a real s

eas you do get

is cap off for the sake of coolness, as he was heated with his toil. "I do wish I had light hair like yours. Angels, and goddesses, and princesses, and pe

Christopher never overstated a case; but then one had the comfort of kn

ween her fingers and examining it as if it were a sample of material; "it is like that ugly brown se

h uglier hair than yours." Chris really c

"I believe I like them better now than I do in summer. Now they are like the things you wish for, and in the su

e chimneys that we see from our house. You can't think how gloomy it is for your rooms to look out on nothing but smoke

smoke and the chimneys and the furnaces-they are all so

do they make yo

and the pillar of fire by night, to tell us which way to go. I make up tales to myself about the people in the wilderness; and how they watch the pillar, and how it keeps them from id

e did, and yet the helpful and beautiful thoughts came to her and not to him. Still, it was comforting to know that the

ntinued, pointing to the distant hills; "and I make up lovely tales about that country, and all the beautiful things t

d silently, and Elisabeth watched

eople in a morning, however much you

were beyond Christopher's comprehensio

And I said nice things to him, and horrid things to you; he and I played in the wood, and you had to do lessons all by yourself at s

way to express his pleasure in words. "And so

ing and remembered you. When you really are fond of a person, you always want to do something to please them; so I went and told Cousin Maria that I'd

topher could thoroughly understand and

or not. She said that there were a lot of books in the library that weren't suitable for a little girl to read; but that it wasn't naughty of me to have r

remarked Christ

at the goodness was yours, because it was you that mad

are a regu

ing that; it was the truth. It was you that made me tell, you k

l," said Christopher, with admiration; "you

h's pale little face glowed with d

n about the books," continued Christopher; "for I know you

person you are fond of isn't goodness. I wonder if grown-up people get to be as fond of religion as th

stopher, who was always at sea wh

that if I were really good, religion ou

ousin Anne! Wh

religion would give me the same so

rt of fe

reat if Cousin Anne is there. When she speaks, it's just like music trickling down your back

should think nobody ever thought of a

s far too healthy minded to consider herself peculiar. Af

lied, with a blush, for he was always shy of talking abou

o sympathy with anybody who was. "Ho

l

to know exac

ell how much they like anybod

l how much I like everybo

ow

ust like the big thermometer in the hall; a

like your Cousi

ees," replied El

r Cousin

ix

rs. Ba

isabeth always k

you like me?" asked Christ

ed Elisabeth, with

e feeling well in after years, and to wonder how Elisabeth could understand so much