The Rector of St. Mark's

ey were always early risers at the farmhouse, but this morning Anna, who had slept but little, arose earlier than usual and, leaning from the window to inhale the

eeling of bitterness toward Lucy Harcourt, who was not to blam

ck to his allegiance, and it is right. She is a pretty creature, but strangely unsuited, I fear, to be hi

e duties which will devolve upon her as a rector's wife. I can go directly

wrapping it around her rival, she was doing a most amiable deed, when down in her inmost heart, where the tempter had put it, there was an unrecognized wish to see how the little dainty girl would shrink from th

broad piazza, the doctor dutifully holding the skein of worsted from which Miss Fanny was crocheting, and Lucy playi

start at once," she exclaimed, when, after a few mo

was she ever to do it if she could not walk such a little way as that? Anna, too, was averse to riding and she felt a kind of grim satisfaction when, after a time, the little figure, which at first had skipped along ahead with all the airiness of a bird, began to lag, and even pant for breath, as the way grew steeper and the path more stony and rough. Anna's evil spirit was in the ascendant that afternoon, steeling her heart against Lucy's doleful exclamations, as on

she said, sinking down, exhausted, upon

as dripping, Anna too sat down beside her, and, laying her curly head in

haps, how weak I am, and how little it takes to tire me. They sa

the result of her rashness, and then she smoothed the wet hair, which, dried by the

on, her voice sounding very low and her bright shoulder-knots of ribbon trembling with the rapid beating of her heart. "When he was talking to me I could almost be willing to die, but the moment

her lap. "I am wicked beyond what you can guess. I led you this rough way when I might

t confess to the jealousy, but who, in all other respects, answered truthfully, "I think an evil spirit possessed me for a time, and I wanted

forgive you, though I do not quite understand why you should wish to discourage me or tease me either, when I li

would willingly have borne in her arms the remainder of their way, as a kind of penance for her past misdeeds; but Lucy was much better, she said, and

carried, sprang up like a flock of pigeons and came trooping towards her. It was not the sweet, pastoral scene which Lucy had pictured to herself, with Arthur for the background, and her ardor was greatly dampened even before the threshold was crossed, and she stood in the low, close room where the sick woman lay, her large eyes unnaturally bright, and turned wistfully upon them as she entered. There were a

hey will look better by and by," Anna whispered, feeling that some ap

n upon the wooden chair and looked dubiously on while Anna made the sick woman more tidy in

Hill, instead of the coarse, soiled rag which hardly deserved the name of pillow-case. "No, I never could do that," and the possible life with Arthur which the maiden had more than once imagined began to look very dreary, when, suddenly, a shadow darkened the do

ls, though I was almost sure of one," and his fine eyes rested on Anna w

sy thought flashing across her mind as she remembe

med to prize so highly. What a difference his presence made in that wretched room! She did not mind the poverty now, or care if her dress was stained with the molasse

ck woman's bedside, he said the prayers she had hungered for more than for the contents of Anna's basket,

cipal belligerent, who, awed by the beauty of her face and the authoritative tone of

ffect upon the little savages. I never knew them so quiet before for a long time," Arthur said to Lucy in a low tone, which

and the hot tears which dropped so fast upon Mrs. Hobbs' pillow while Arthur said the prayer was but the baptism of that

id, "and if there is any great good whi

the clergyman and Lucy outside the door, the former pointing to the ruined sl

or your blistered feet will ever more be thrust f

on, Anna keeping a watchful care over Lucy, picking out the smoothest plac

me," the rector said, offering each an arm, and

ucy's face, which was so white and ghastly; so like the face seen once before in Venice, that, without an

his arms until they reached Prospect Hill, where Mrs. Meredith was anxiously awaiting their return, her brow cloudi

nd so remove her from danger," she th

to her own room, she knelt down by her side, and, looking up in her face, began-"There's one question I wish

ping sob which Lucy thought a long-drawn breath,

will, but some time he will ask you to b

is, and then lay like a dead weight in her bosom, while

r among the Alps I have lived in a kind of ideal world of which he was the center. I am an orphan, you know, and an heiress, too. There is half a million, they say

in Fanny favors it, I am sure, and Uncle Hetherton would not oppose me when he saw I was in earnest. Once the world, which is a very meddlesome thing, picked out Thornton Hastings, of New York, for me; but my! he was too proud and lofty even to talk to me much, and I w

flash and the delicate nostrils dilate as Lucy gave v

re in the summer, but don't you speak to him, th

as she asked: "But won't you, too, be at Sa

e dressing and dancing and flirting tire me so, and then, you know

irs and out upon the piazza, where her aunt was waiting. Mr. Leighton had accepted Fanny's invitation to stay to tea, and he handed the ladies to

olding Anna's hand. "St. Mark's will be lonely wit

but Anna, looking back, saw Arthur standing by Lucy's side, fastening a rosebud in her hair, and at