fully, perhaps, having been so near to
the attaining of heavenly joy, but still with patience and content,
willing to abide God's time.

After that the days followed one another quietly and happily, with
little to break the pleasant monotony beyond the occasional visits of
the neighbours from the village, or the coming of letters from home. To
Graeme it was a very peaceful time. Watching her from day to day, her
old friend could not but see that she was content with her life and its
work, now; that whatever the shadow had been which had fallen on her
earlier days, it had passed away, leaving around her, not the brightness
of her youth, but a milder and more enduring radiance. Graeme was, in
Janet's eyes, just what the daughter of her father and mother ought to
be. If she could have wished anything changed, it would have been in
her circumstances, not in herself. She was not satisfied that to her
should be denied the higher happiness of being in a home of her own--the
first and dearest to some one worthy of her love.

"And yet who knows?" said she to herself. "One can never tell in which
road true happiness lies; and it is not for me, who can see only a
little way, to wish for anything that God has not given her. `A
contented mind is a continual feast,' says the Book. She has that. And
`Blessed are the meek, and the merciful, and the pure in heart.' What
would I have? I'll make no plans, and I'll make no wishes. It is all
in good hands, and there is nothing to fear for her, I am sure of that.
As for her sister--. Well, I suppose there will ay be something in the
lot of those we love, to make us mindful that they need better help than
ours. And it is too far on in the day for me to doubt that good
guidance will come to her as to the rest."

Still, after her husband's words, Mrs Snow regarded Rose's movements
with an earnestness that she was not quite willing to acknowledge even
to herself. It was rather unreasonable of him, she thought at first, to
be otherwise than content with the young girl in her new sedateness.
She was not quite so merry and idle as during her last visit; but that
was not surprising, seeing she was older and wiser, and more sensible of
the responsibilities that life brings to all. It was natural that it
should be so, and well that it should be so. It was matter for
thankfulness that the years were bringing her wisdom, and that, looking
on life with serious eyes, she would not expec