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he would send Pat, as he called her, for another quarter; beginning regularly and with the strictest intentions, but invariably ending by keeping her at home four days out of the six, honestly convinced that he was doing the best for her in his power, and that his own private lessons, added to exercise and fresh air, were more to the purpose than all she could learn in the "kitten-house," as he irreverently called the school.

Then again he began to doubt, when the Misses Pritchard had said something more than ordinarily tart, and he had heard of it, as he always did; and tormented himself with conscientious scruples. But when he looked at her, and noted how she had thriven on her training, with such an exuberance of life, such a power and splendour of girlish health and beauty as he had never seen surpassed-not even in the South Seas, where he had left a dusky, sleekhaired romance in old days that haunted him stillhe stifled his misgivings; shut his eyes to all but the fact that she was perfect in constitution, in principles, and in temper; lovely to look at and good to be with; and that she had never given him a day's uneasiness during the twelve years of his guardianship. Still, he was conscious that at eighteen years of age she needed more in her home life

than the society of an old sea-captain, though he could tell her about the Chinese war where he had lost his leg, and teach her the names of the constellations and all the technicalities of the Holdfast model.

The question however was: What was it she needed? and how could he get it for her, even if he found out? His means were limited, and his knowledge of the world was on a par with his means; but he must do something all the same. So he took the thought to heart, and racked his brains night and day to discover what it was Patricia ought to have to perfect her education and condition" the cats" being of no more good-and when he had found it he would give it, let it cost what it would.

Meanwhile Patricia lived on, blithe as bird in bower, conscious of no loss in her life, feeling no pain, foreseeing no sorrow. Youth, health, a conscience as clear as the sky and love as warm as the sun, made up the glad catalogue of her days. She knew no evil and she feared none. Her duty was plain before her and her path had neither thorns nor dubious turns. Truth, reverence, obedience; there was nothing hard nor difficult in these; bred as she had been, the contrary lines would have been the difficulties. No falsehood had ever passed her

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lips; no shadow of subterfuge, of sly pretence, of fair-seeming which was seeming only, of disloyalty to her word, of insincerity to herself, of irreverent questioning or comment on others, had ever sullied the stainless innocence of her soul. Frank and free, loyal and loving, with the sea and the rocks, the wild flowers and the wild birds, as her playmates, Gordon as her friend, her uncle to reverence, to obey, and God, who was never her tyrant to fear -only her Father Invisible to worship what more could she want? Had she been asked, she would have said "Nothing." Her life was one of absolute contentment, of cloudless joy; and strong of heart and energy, rich in vitality, in cheerfulness, in youth, she felt as if nothing could ever touch or harm her; as if she could neither die out of existence nor be crushed by circumstance; as if she must always be as she was now-happy, free, and fearless, and with a conscience void of offence towards God and man.

CHAPTER II.

IN THE SUNSHINE.

THE Captain was sitting in the porch of the cottage, which gave to the south and looked on the sea. The wind stirred the fringe of curly snow-white hair that hung about his ruddy weather-beaten face, and blew out the folds of the Union Jack flying from the flagstaff before his house. The white clouds scudded over the bright blue sky; the white waves leaped about the feet of the old grey cliffs and broke into backward streams of spray as they came tumbling in-shore; the birds sang as if they thought the spring had come again; a few brave bees hummed over the latest flowers; and the golden leaves of the autumn trees shook and rustled in the sunshine, as the wind passed through the branches. Everywhere was movement, everywhere freshness and the sentiment of life and freedom. And this bright October day,

this blithe and genial farewell of the golden autumn time, was in true harmony with the cheerful spirit of the old man sitting in the porch, and feeling— past seventy as he was-how good a thing it was to live.

If only he knew what was best for Patricia! When once this problem was solved he should not have a care left. It was his only anxiety; and she, dear child-God bless her!-how unconscious she was that he was bearing this cross for her!

In a life so uneventful as his, and with a temperament the reverse of indifferent-given indeed, to exaggerate rather than reduce-any question whatsoever took enormous proportions, and a difficulty of decision became a moral burden grievously oppressive with a sense of responsibility, though never making him downcast nor ill-tempered.

Sitting there in the porch, touched by the sun and stirred by the wind, whiles sweeping the horizon with his glass, whiles fingering his round rasped chin as if counsel lurked among the stubbly beardroots, suddenly the solution struck him. It came like an inspiration born of the sunshine and the wind on this swift and hurrying October day. A lady companion. That was it. A lady companion who would teach her all those little feminine graces

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