ly struck with the comfort and neatness of
everything about it. The furniture, without being costly, was good of
its kind; the very excellent collection of books was methodically
arranged in ample book-shelves, and carefully preserved by glass doors;
the bright fire in the grate--for though it was called summer, it was
but a bleak cold day in Edinburgh; and the respectable-looking
middle-aged woman who had just laid the cloth for dinner, and now
brought it in; all gave an air of comfort and repose to a dwelling much
humbler than she had been accustomed to live in, but far better than
any she could hope for a while to occupy. There were on a side table a
few costly articles of VERTU, and a magnificent folio of engravings,
which had been bought by Mr. Hogarth since his accession to fortune;
but substantial comfort had been attained long before.

Jane was rather surprised to see the large proportion of poetry and
fiction that filled the book-shelves. Little did Mr. Hogarth the elder
suppose that the bank clerk, whose outer life was so satisfactorily
practical, had an inner life whose elements were as fanciful and unreal
as poor Elsie's. His taste was certainly more severe and fastidious
than hers, for he was older, and had read more; but his love, both of
art and poetry, was very strong, and had been to him in his long
solitary struggle with fortune a constant and unfailing pleasure. He
had found in them some amends for the want of relatives and the want of
sympathy; and now his heart turned with strong affection to both of his
cousins, and especially to the one who treated him with so much
delicacy of feeling and such generous confidence. It was like finding a
long-lost sister; there was so much to ask and to answer on either
side. Jane liked to talk of her uncle; and Francis' curiosity about his
unknown father, whom he had only occasionally seen at long intervals as
a stranger who took a little interest in him, was satisfied by her
clear and graphic descriptions of his opinions, his talk, and his
habits; whilst she, beginning a new life, and doubtful of the issue,
eagerly asked of his early experiences, and liked to chronicle every
little step in a steady and well-deserved progress.

Though Jane had such a practical turn of mind, and such an excellent
education, it must not be supposed that she knew much of the world.
Educate women as you will, that knowledge is rarely attained at
twenty-three; and she had lived so much