Mary Marston

own use he kept two-an indulgence disproportioned to his establishment; for, although precise in hi

the comfort of desert as well as solitary places-it is not surprising if at times, going to the stable to saddle one, he should find its gear not in the spick-and-span condition alone to his mind. It might then well happen there was no

some duty before going to bed, caught sight of him cleaning his stirrups: from that moment she took upon herself the silent and unsuspected supervision of the harness-r

n, going hastily one morning, some months before the date of my narrative, into the harness-room to get a saddle, he came upon Letty, who had imagi

Cousin Godfrey," she said, and p

like that. What on earth put it in your he

y wouldn't be much good if they weren't-but they're no fitter by nature to clean s

aid Godfrey, who could not help feeling pleased as well as

Cousin Godfrey," she ans

n to see yo

t I am sure of. It is hands that write po

asked Godfrey, displeased, for s

oor, and clasping her great wash-leather gloves together; "I couldn't help

Letty! Does

I have no head, but I have pretty good hands. Of course, Cousin Godfrey, I didn't

, and turn her out of the saddle-room, would scarcely be a proper way of thanking her, scarcely an adequate mode of revealing his estimate of the condescension of her ladyhood. For, although Letty did make beds and chose to clean harness, Godfrey was gentleman enough not to think her less of a lady-for the moment at least-because of such doings: I will not say he ha

f the old times, Letty, t

Cousin Godfrey," she r

her, and left h

e could do for her-anything in her he could help? He did not know. What she really was, he could not tell. She was a fresh, bright girl-that he seemed to have just discovered; and, as she sat polish

d, may even now be athirst, without knowing that books are the bottles of the water of life!" Perhaps, if he could make her drink once, she would drink again. The difficulty was, to find out what sort of spiritual drink would be most to her taste, and would most entice her to more. There must be some seeds lying cold and hard in her uncultured garden; what water would soonest make them grow? Not all the waters of Damascus will turn mere sand sifted of eternal winds into fruitful soil; but

s books, in search of some suggestion of how to approach Letty; his glance fell on a beautifully bound volume of verse-a selection of English lyrics, made with tolerable judgment-which he ha

e said, and, taking it down, carri

ce somehow made him feel she had been gone some time.

e feet of generations of mistresses and dairy-maids. Its only light came through a small window shaded with shrubs and ivy, which stood open, and let in the scents of bud and blossom, weaving a

osebud print, with the sleeves tucked above her elbows, was skimming the cream in a great red-brown earthen pan. He pushed the door a little, and, at its screech along the uneven floor, Letty's head turned quickly

come upon this book in my libra

milk-pool, and hastily wiping her hands in her apron. Her face had flushed rosy with pleasure, and grew rosier and brighter still as she took the rich m

"Is it really for me, Cousin Godfrey? Do

d Godfrey, with a pleased smile-for he augured well from

she called after him, "you don

u are certain you car

t very much !

ow yet whether you will understand it or

she read, nor knew how the time passed, until the voice of her aunt in her ears warned her to finish her skimming, and carry the jug to the pantry. But already Letty ha

ht himself in time not to tell her the thing was worthless: such a word, instead of chipping the shell in which the girl's faculty lay dormant, would have smashed the whole egg into a miserable albuminous mass. And he was well rewarded; for, the same day, in the evening, he heard her singing gayly over her work, and listening discovered that she was singing verse after verse of one

ust follow the truth, and, in that pursuit, the less one thinks about himself, the pursuer, the better. Let him so hunger and thirst after the truth that the dim vision of it occupies all his being, and leaves no time to think of his hunger and his thirst. Self-forgetfulness in the reaching out after that which is essential to us is the healthiest of mental conditions. One has to look to his way, to

grows to a passion, I mean, of course, the passion of that thing, not of something else. Here I no more mean that her devotion became what in novels is commonly called love, than, if I said ambition or avarice had grown to a passion, I should mean those vices had changed to love. Godfrey Wardour was at least ten years older than Letty; besides him, she had not a single male relative in this world-neither had she mother

e except as a word, and from sympathy with the persons in the tales she read. Any remotest suggestion of its existence in

ministration. Of necessity he grew more and more interested in her, especially after he had made the discovery that the moment she laid hold of a truth-the moment, that is, when it was no longer another's idea but he

all she did that might have gone far to rouse resentment and recoil in the mind of a less childlike woman. Just as surely, notwithstanding all that, however, did the sweet girl grow into his heart: it could not be otherwise. The idea of her was making a nest for itself in his soul-what kind of a nest for long he did not know, and for long did not think to inquire. Living thus, like an elder brother with a much younger sister, he was more th

d of her aunt; but they had been said, and were accepted. Mary went, and the aunt difficulty had been got over. The friendship of Godfrey also had now run into that of the girls, and Mary's visits were continued with pleasure to all, and certainly wi

much feeling its might upon her own eternal nature. She was as yet, in relation to the gospel, much as the Jews were in relation to their law; they had not yet learned the gospel of their law, and she was yet only serving the law of the gospel. But she was making progress, in simple and pure virtue of her obedience.

rstand even better than he. Book after book he lent her-now and then gave her one of the best-introducing her, with no special intention, to much in the way of religion that was good in the way of literature as well. Only where he delighted mainly in the literature, she delighted more in the religion. Some of my readers will be able to imagine what it must have bee

called the world had brought him into larger and closer contact with what is really the world. The breakers upon reef and shore may be the ocean to some, but he who would know the ocean indeed must leave them afar, sinking into silence, and sail into wider and lonelier spaces. Through Godfrey, Mary came to

lip about in the saddle, or let go the reins for a kick and a plunge or two. There was the thing that should be, and the thing that should not be; the thing that was reasonable, and the thing that was absurd. Add to all this, that she believed she saw in Mr. Wardour's behavior to his cousin, in the careful gentleness evident through all the severity of the schoolmaster, the presence of a deeper feeling, that might one day blossom to the b

flowers, and the fresh quickening of one's own soul, are the spiritual wages of every spiritual service.

the shop in quest of something for his mother, naturally shook hands with Mary over the counter. No remark was made so long as her father was in the shop, for, with all their professed contempt of him

t would, whatever might happen, secure the Marston money to the business. Their evil report Mary did not carry to her father. She scorned to trouble his lofty nature with her small annoyances; neither could they long keep down the wellspring of h