all Deerbrook for early visiting, I think. Here are you home;
and I dare say Mr Tucker has still another pipe to smoke, and the wine
is not mulled yet at the Jameses."

"It is quite time Margaret was giving us a little of her company, I am
sure," said Hester. "You forget how early she went. If it was not for
the school, I think she and Maria would spend all their time together.
I have every wish not to interfere: but I cannot think that this
friendship has made Maria less selfish."

"It would, I dare say, my dear, but that there was no selfishness to
begin upon. I am afraid she is very unwell, Margaret?"

"In much pain, I fear."

"I will go and see if I can do her any good. You can glance over what
we have read, and I shall be back in a quarter of an hour, to go on with
it."

"I wonder you left Maria, if she is so poorly."

"I determined that I would not, another time; but this time I had
promised."

"Pray, do not make out that I am any restraint upon your intercourse
with Maria. And yet--it is not quite fair to say that, either."

"I do not think it is quite fair."

"But you should warn me--you should tell me, if I ask anything
unreasonable. When are you going again? An old patient of my husband's
has sent us a quarter of a chest of very fine oranges. We will carry
Maria a basketful of oranges to-morrow."

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.

LONG WALKS.

The unhappy are indisposed to employment: all active occupations are
wearisome and disgusting in prospect, at a time when everything, life
itself, is full of weariness and disgust. Yet the unhappy must be
employed, or they will go mad. Comparatively blessed are they, if they
are set in families, where claims and duties abound, and cannot be
escaped. In the pressure of business there is present safety and
ultimate relief. Harder is the lot of those who have few necessary
occupations, enforced by other claims than their own harmlessness and
profitableness. Reading often fails. Now and then it may beguile; but
much oftener the attention is languid, the thoughts wander, and
associations with the subject of grief are awakened. Women who find
that reading will not do, will obtain no relief from sewing. Sewing is
pleasant enough in moderation to those whose minds are at ease the
while; but it is an employment which is trying to the nerves when long
continued, at the best; and nothing can be worse for the harassed, and
for those who want to escape from t