certainly will not have me. hands?" Who will take her off my "I think that I shall like her," said Lilias, after pausing for an instant to summon resolution to encounter her sisters' raillery; "she looks pretty and sensible. And her eyes brightened when you offered her the mignonette as if she were very fond of flowers." "Lilies in particular," said Susan; "I am glad that you mean to adopt her, for it will be a relief to Uncle Ralph, who looks quite oppressed with his charge. Now, Ailie, you know that I am waiting impatiently to hear your opinion." "I shall only comment on your own," replied Miss Alison, "which is exactly what I should have predicted, if I had not seen Miss Leigh." "You still think me prejudiced? I am sure that I made a great effort to be civil.” "Yes; and as Lily observed, those sad eyes brightened. I think that something more than civility would thaw her formal manner." "It is difficult to be cordial to those who do not meet one halfway. However I will do my best for your sake, Ailie, and I hereby admonish the rest of the family to be equally charitable. And so good-bye to you all, good people, for I am going into the bottom to visit old Sally." And she sprang over the stile into the muddy footpath leading to old Sally's cottage, leaving the schoolroom party rather indignant at her defection. CHAPTER IV. Can calm despair and wild unrest THE formal visit to Duck Dub was equal formality on the following day. IN MEMORIAM. returned with Mr. Cornwall suggested that his niece should accompany him to the Mains, and Miriam went to put on her bonnet with no apparent reluctance. Their walk was a silent one; Mr. Cornwall occasionally exerted himself to point out the direction of converging lanes and footpaths, and Miriam received the information without hinting that she had explored them all before, rising with the sun in order to secure the privilege of roaming alone through the country. She had felt aggrieved by the Mordaunts' return, because it deprived her of the undisputed possession of their woods and shrubberies. The slight, pale girl, dressed in her deep mourning, awakened Mrs. Mordaunt's motherly sympathies, and her kind greeting made Miriam's eyelids quiver. Perhaps she had never thought to hear herself called "my dear" in that tone again. "Susan must take you to the schoolroom," continued Mrs. Mordaunt; "they have hardly begun regular work yet, so Miss Alison will not mind the interruption." Susan accordingly led the way up the broad staircase and along the sunny corridor, "So different from Duck Dub," she said, and Miriam smiled a passive assent. When Susan opened the schoolroom door, Miss Alison did not at first perceive that she was accompanied by Miriam, and she began to protest against the intrusion. "My dear Susan, I must keep the door fastened if you will make your way in at irregular hours. We are at French reading." "Poor, oppressed Ailie!" said Susan, only amused by the remonstrance, "you must resign yourself to a broken day: I have brought you a visitor." The visitor was courteously received, and installed on the well-worn sofa which served as the seat of honour; the lesson-books were closed, and Miss Alison retreated to her own room, considering that her presence might be felt as a restraint on Miriam, if not on her own pupils. And certainly Miriam did not sit so erect, nor fold her hands with the same precision, when the door had closed upon the governess. Acting on her inclination to cement a friendship, Lilias spoke first. "Did you walk here with Uncle Ralph ?" Miriam assented, and exerted herself to add that it was a very fine day. While Lilias pondered what she was to say next, Susan was taking a survey of the room, and seeing a half-finished drawing on the table, she began to criticize the performance. "You must let me stretch a fresh board for you, Patty," she said; "you will never make anything of that. The girl looks as if she had a stiff neck, and the background is woolly." Patty gave up the background, declaring that "she hated landscapes," but she defended her principal figure with some warmth. "I have measured it in all sorts of ways," she said, "and the head is in exactly the same angle as in the copy." "Then appearances are deceitful, for they look quite unlike," said Susan; "do come and look, Miss Leigh." Miriam brightened up at this appeal, and though she disclaimed any knowledge of drawing, she gave her decision promptly enough. "There is something wrong in the pose of the head. It ought to be more like this." And taking up a pencil to illustrate her meaning, she made a spirited sketch on the margin of the drawing. "Why you said that you did not know how to draw!" said Susan. "No more I do. At least I have never tried, except to make pencil-sketches, and scribble a little with pen and ink. I used to wish so much for a paint-box." "You may use mine as much as you please," said Patty. "I do not care about it now," said Miriam. But the hair-pencils had evidently a sort of fascination for her, and she was soon floating on her colours, under Patty's guidance, who was flattered by the superiority afforded her by her greater experience. It was a silent, though not an unsociable visit, for Miriam was as much absorbed by the occupation, as the sisters were interested in her progress, and the entrance of a servant to say that Mr. Cornwall was waiting for Miss Leigh, was an unwelcome interruption. "But you must come again soon," said Susan, "and Ailie will give you some hints. She teaches well, though she does not draw much herself." "She will set you to draw from those wearisome casts," said Lilias plaintively, "which I do so dislike, unless Roger is here to cut my chalks for me, so that I need not blacken my fingers." "Who is Roger?" Miriam asked, as she was drawing on her gloves. "Roger is our sailor brother, our only brother, and Lily's especial property," replied Susan. Miriam looked up quickly, the light of her grey eyes dimmed by tears. They were dashed aside, as she hoped, unnoticed, and she seemed now only anxious to be gone. "She has a genius for drawing," said Patty, as soon as their visitor was gone. "Give me your knife, Lily; I cannot tolerate my stiff-necked gipsy beside that graceful head, so I shall not wait for Ailie's sanction to cut it out." Accordingly the work of destruction was accomplished |