a nice old fellow! and he is delighted. He is on the parish, has half-a-crown a week now, and is therefore very well satisfied with the six shillings I offer him." "Is it the same you heard of last night?"

"Yes, the same."

"Well, what else have you done?"

"Been to read to old Betty; and called on Mrs. Bateman, to see about her child being christened, and she had such a tremendous long tale to tell me that I've been nowhere else."

"I don't know her; what sort of person is she?"

"Oh, much like all about here: with the same kind of notions which are so difficult to combat. I have been endeavouring to make her see how much she might save by a different mode of spending her money; how perfectly possible it would be to save a little each week out of their wages, and also to send one or two children to school; but I only get that provoking may-be' in answer, without producing the slightest impression."

"Well, dear, we must go on persevering and trying, and in time, I trust, we shall make them see their own advantage better."

"I trust so. I'm sure better-managed cottage homes would empty the public-houses sooner than anything. If the tired labouring man was sure of a cheerful, orderly room, with a comfortable meal,

nicely prepared, they would far rather, many of them, stay there than seek for such comfort in the beer-shop. So few of the women in that class of life study the comfort of their husbands, they drag on an existence somehow, but without any fixed rule of conduct, any strong sense of duty."

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Very true; and do you not think that is because matrimony is not considered as a 'holy estate;' its importance is not sufficiently felt; and the mothers do not impress on their children how grave the step is they are going to take?"

I

"Because they have not felt it themselves. have a notion in my mind for a lecture on the subject to be delivered in your school, when there are a sufficient number of scholars."

"I think it would be a very good subject, indeed, dear; I hope I shall be able to come and hear it.”

"I hope so, too, darling. I think you will often come to your school when once it has started, and I trust poor Millicent's love-story will not render her unequal to the task, or unable to open the school on the 29th."

"No, I hope not, poor thing; but I must go now, and seek for some work for Anne Aldham, for I must make a pretence of employing her. I should not like her to imagine that I give her the money in charity."

Certainly not, love. I have some letters to write, so if you want me I am in the study. I should like you to come and sit there, if you did not much object."

"I'll try and put up with it," she said, smiling. "Then I'll have your couch wheeled in there." "Yes, if you please, dear; I can't get on quite without that yet, I fear."

And away he went eagerly to arrange her couch in the pleasantest nook in his pleasant study.

CHAPTER IX.

"And let rich music's tongue

Unfold the imagined happiness that both

Receive in either by this dear encounter."

Romeo and Juliet.

EARLY the next morning Millicent started for Alringford. Philip's master was at home and saw her directly: he told her that some time ago he had spoken to Philip about going to Melbourne where a friend of his was established, who required workmen, that he offered large wages; and as he considered Philip an excellent hand and worth encouragement, he had suggested, though very sorry to lose him, that he should go to Australia. At first Philip had refused; but on Monday last he came to his master, and said that he should like to alter his mind and to go to Australia at

once.

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I knew," he continued, "that a ship was going to sail on the 8th, and that my friend was in a hurry for men, and so I let him go, but I regret him every

moment: he was my best hand. Where he is now I cannot tell you; but I should imagine in some lodgings near the Docks. He promised to write to me on his arrival, but I do not expect to hear till then."

With this scanty and to her useless information Millicent was obliged to be content, and to return home much as she came. A long walk alone is never very pleasant, how much worse when the mind is full of painful thoughts; and yet it was a pretty walk, too, and had her thoughts been unoccupied, she might have enjoyed even alone the pleasant fields through which her way lay. Some of them, in which the turf was so velvety and pleasant to walk on,-some in which, on either side the path, grew luxuriant crops of corn, being cut now and standing in shocks, beneath which, on a bundle of shawls or a coat, sat some baby, whose mother had come up with "father's" dinner, and was standing to chat with a group of men, looking picturesque enough with their coloured handkerchiefs wound about their heads and their reaping-hooks in their hands. In one or two fields a second crop of hay was being carried, and they were gay with women and children, whose merry voices rang in the clear air. Sometimes a loud whirr would startle the passer-by, as a covey of young birds would get up, and now and then a lark would rise and soar far in the blue sky-its little throat bursting with its loud har