of them.

And yet she loved them well, as a mother loves her only idiot child.
They were her expressions of the romance and poetry that had been
in her; and though the expressions doubtless were poor, the romance
and poetry of her heart had been high and noble. How wrong the world
is in connecting so closely as it does the capacity for feeling and
the capacity for expression,--in thinking that capacity for the one
implies capacity for the other, or incapacity for the one incapacity
also for the other; in confusing the technical art of the man who
sings with the unselfish tenderness of the man who feels! But the
world does so connect them; and, consequently, those who express
themselves badly are ashamed of their feelings.

She read her poor lines again and again, throwing herself back into
the days and thoughts of former periods, and telling herself that
it was all over. She had thought of encouraging love, and love had
come to her in the shape of Mr Maguire, a very strict evangelical
clergyman, without a cure or an income, somewhat in debt, and with,
oh! such an eye! She tore the papers, very gently, into the smallest
fragments. She tore them again and again, swearing to herself as she
did so that there should be an end of all that; and, as there was
no fire at hand, she replaced the pieces in her desk. During this
ceremony of the tearing she devoted herself to the duties of a single
life, to the drudgeries of ordinary utility, to such works as those
she was now doing. As to any society, wicked or religious,--wicked
after the manner of Miss Todd, or religious after the manner of St
Stumfolda,--it should come or not, as circumstances might direct. She
would go no more in search of it. Such were the resolves of a certain
night, during which the ceremony of the tearing took place.

It came to pass at this time that Mr Rubb, junior, visited his dying
partner almost daily, and was always left alone with him for some
time. When these visits were made Miss Mackenzie would descend to the
room in which her sister-in-law was sitting, and there would be some
conversation between them about Mr Rubb and his affairs. Much as
these two women disliked each other, there had necessarily arisen
between them a certain amount of confidence. Two persons who are much
thrown together, to the exclusion of other society, will tell each
other their thoughts, even though there be no love between them.

"What is he saying to him all these tim