wenty slowly before
I began to speak, and I kept it religiously two whole days. They seemed
like a month; and if I had persevered I should have become dumb, for by
the time I had counted twenty the conversation had hopped on to another
subject, and any remark was hopelessly out of date! So now I have gone
back to my old ways, and say my say, and take the consequences."

"You don't look to me as if you were given to making painful remarks,"
Gervase remarked in a conciliatory tone, and Nan straightened her back
in defence of her own behaviour.

"Wouldn't hurt a fly! That's the worst part of it. For I am so soft-
hearted over other people's woes, that I shed tears regularly every time
I meet a tramp, and he tells me that he is a discharged seaman who has
lost his certificate, and only needs four and sixpence to take him to a
port where he is certain to find fresh work. They always have lost
their certificates and want a railway fare, but I can't help relieving
them and handing-over last Saturday's money. But a tender heart is not
much use if you make awkward remarks and quote people's own doings to
their faces, as capital jokes against somebody else! I got into
terrible trouble in that way with a caller only the other day, and if I
had had any sense I should have stopped in time, for I had plenty of
warning. Her face grew all stiff and rigid, and I wondered what in the
world had given Elsie such a cough all of a sudden. Is there any cure,
do you think, for a habit like this--anything I could do to make myself
careful?"

There was a pause while the two men looked at the eager face, smiled,
and grew sober, as the question awoke memories from their own past.

"A practical kindness of heart, Nan, which is not satisfied with facile
tears and offerings, but takes continual thought of the feelings of
others!"

"Or a severe lesson!" added the younger man thoughtfully. "If you
wounded some one very near and dear, and saw them suffer through your
thoughtlessness, you could never forget it. I learnt that for myself
long ago, when--"

But Nan heard no more of what he said, for, with a flash, her eager mind
had leapt to the solution of the mystery. More love! That was what was
needed. Love, the cure for every human fault. She applied the test to
her own experience, and found it abundantly proven. Had any word or
deed of hers hurt Maud through the period of ultra-sensitiveness through
which that dear sister had pa