s was engaged to teach boys and girls alike--a staid, old-
fashioned maiden lady, who tried to teach the young O'Shaughnessys on
the principles of fifty years ago, to her own confusion and their
patronising disdain. The three boys were sharp as needles to discover
the weak points in her armour, and maliciously prepared questions by
which she could be put to confusion, while the girls tittered and idled,
finding endless excuses for neglecting their unwelcome tasks. Half a
dozen times over had Miss Minnitt threatened to resign her hopeless
task, and half a dozen times had she been persuaded by Mrs
O'Shaughnessy to withdraw her resignation. The poor mother knew full
well that it would be a difficulty to find anyone to take the place of
the hard-worked, ill-paid governess, and the governess loved her wild
charges, as indeed did everyone who knew them, and sorrowed over them in
her heart, because she saw what their blind young eyes never noticed--
the coming shadow on the house, the gradual fading away of the weary,
overtaxed mother. Mrs O'Shaughnessy had fought for years against
chronic weariness and ill-health, but the time was coming when she could
fight no longer, and, almost before her family had recognised that she
was ill, the end drew near, and her husband and children were summoned
to bid the last farewell.

The eyes of the dying woman roamed from one to the other of her six
children--twenty-two-year-old Jack, handsome and manly, so like--oh, so
like that other Jack who had come wooing her nearly thirty years ago!
Bridgie, slim and delicate--so unfit, poor child, to take the burden of
a mother's place; Miles, with his proud, overbearing look, a boy who had
had especial claims on her care and guidance; Joan, beautiful and
daring, ignorant of nothing so much as of her own ignorance; Pat, of the
pensive face and reckless spirit; and last but not least, Pixie, her
baby--dear, naughty, loyal little Pixie, whom she must leave to the
tender mercies of children little older than herself! The dim eyes
brightened, the thin hand stretched out and gripped her husband by the
arm.

"Jack!" she cried shrilly--"Pixie! Give Pixie a chance! Take care of
her--she is so young--and I can't stay. For my sake, Jack, give Pixie a
chance!"

The Major promised with sobs and tears. In his own selfish way he had
adored his wife, and her last words could not easily be put aside. As
the months passed by, he was the more inclined to