Old Kensington

was her life

sse

no one ever retraces, she had learnt a secret that no one ever forgets. Henceforth in many places and hours the vision that haunts each one of us was revealed to her; that solemn ghost of Death stood before her with its changing face, at once sad and tender and pitiless. Who shall speak of it? With our own looks, with the familiar eyes of others,

d, and her aunt's maid came in carrying a nice little tray with breakfast upon it. There w

rd you was not to be disturbed. It is eleven o'clock, and she is

'that will be nice. Marker, I have

carrying away black cloths and silver-spangled draperies, which somehow brought up the terror of the night before; but her nurse kissed her, and made her kneel down and say her prayers, and told her in her homely way that she mus

nd silent, and scant in dress, with a brown face and grey hair; she came in,

oung ladies a treat,' said Marker, who was anxious

at the two children. 'Rhoda must get a remembrance to take back

ores, the grown-up people seem to live on grapes and ices and bonbons, and on the enormous pears displayed in the windows of the cafés. Everything is more or less gilt and twinkling,-china flowers bloom delicate and scentless; it would seem as if the business of life consisted in wandering here and there, and sipping and resting to the sound of music in the shade of the orange-trees, and gazing at the many wonders displayed; at the gimcracks and trinkets and str

with great dark eyes and a wistful pale face; she was all shabbily dressed, and had no frills like Dolly, or flowers in her hat. The two stood gazing at the portrait of a smiling little Prince with a blue ribbon, surmounted by a wreath of flowers, glazed and enclosed in a gilt-locket. I suppose the little girls of the present[1] bear the same sort of allegiance to the Prince Imperial that Dolly felt for the little smiling Count of Paris of those days. For the King his grandfather, for the Dukes and Princes his uncles, hers was a very vague devotion; but when the old yellow royal coaches used to com

l Lady Sarah that they had made up

bustle and chatter around her, but she began to tell herself that there must be some use even in the pomps and vanities of life, when she saw how happy the little girls looked,

ow I can get no end of things.

id Rhoda, philosophically. 'Dolly, you don't manage well. I don't want to get everything I

said Dolly, 'for fear t

shady avenues, to the sounds of life and pleasure-making. Carriages were rolling along with them; long lines of trees, of people, of pavements led to a great triumphal archway, over wh

id, 'is waiting for you in the drawing-

a sort of shyness habitual to her made her shrink from a scene or an explanation. It may have been some feeling of the same sort which had induced

(if there are such things as secrets). The laurel-crowned clocks tick beneath their wreaths and memorials of bygone victories, the looking-glasses placidly relate the faces, the passing figures, the varying lights and changes as they pass before them. To-night a dusky golden light was streaming into the room from behind the hills, that were heaving, so Dolly thought, and dimming the solemn glow of the sky: she saw it all in an instant; and then, with a throb she recognised

on to-night. I shall never forget your--' His voice broke. 'How good you have been to me

ened as she told him 'to

topped short. 'I forgot,' he said, still in his hard matter-of-fact voice, 'I brought a cross of Emma's; I thought she would wish it. It won't bring ill-luck,' he said, with a ghastly sort of

ddly, she might have understood him better; but as it was, she thought he was saying terrible things, laughing and jeering and heartless; so judged Dolly in an innocent severity. Is it so? Are not the children of this world wiser in their generation than the children of light? Are there not depths of sin and repentance undreamt of by the pure in spirit? One seems to grasp at a meaning which eludes one as one strains at it, wondering what is the serm

life to be less and less uncompromising as complexities increase, less true to themselves as they are more true to others, and if the very angels of God are wrestling and at war in their hearts. All through her life Dolly found, with a bitter experience, that these two angels of charity and of truth are often very far apart until the miracle of love comes to unite them. She was strong and true; in after days she prayed fo

s hand; and as she saw him coming, black against the light of the sunset, she shrank away behind Rhoda, who stood looking up with her dark wistful eyes. The young man saw Dolly shrink from him, and he stop

er? Will you keep it for Emma's sak

away. Dolly looked up, and her eyes met the flash of the young man's two wild burning eyes. They seemed to her to speak. 'I saw y

e more,' and then he went quickly out of the room without looking back, le

set quietly behind Montmartre, where the poor girl was lying there upon the heights above the city. Was it Dolly who was tr

the scent of the lilac-trees in flower seemed as it came flooding up! She was still angry, but she was sorry too, and two great

much pleased

ays think of the poor gentleman when I wear it; and I shall t

him, you mean,' said

ve it to me,' cried Rhoda, clu