ess. You will be my secretary this
morning instead of Bruce?"

"Willingly;" for, though she too, like Malcolm, had been a little
displaced by this charming cousin, there was not an atom of jealousy in
her nature. Hers was that pure and unselfish affection which could bear
to stand by and see those she loved made happy, even though it was by
another than herself.

She fell to work in her old way, and the earl employed as much as he
required her ready handwriting, her clear head, and her full
acquaintance with every body and every thing in the district; for Helen
was a real minister's daughter--as popular and as necessary in the
parish as the minister himself; and she was equally important at the
Castle, where she was consulted, as this morning, on every thing Lord
Cairnforth was about to do, and on the wisest way of expending--he
did not wish to save--the large yearly income which he now seemed
really beginning to enjoy.

Helen, too, after a long morning's work, drew her breath with a sigh of
pleasure.

"What a grand thing it is to be as rich as you are!"

"Why so?"

"One can do such a deal of good with plenty of money."

"Yes. Should you like to be very rich, Helen?" watching her with an
amused look.

Helen shook her head and laughed. "Oh, it's no use asking me the
question, for I shall never have the chance of being rich."

"You can not say; you might marry, for instance."

"That is not likely. Papa could never do without me; besides, as the
folk say, I'm 'no bonnie, ye ken.' But," speaking more seriously,
"indeed, I never think of marrying. If it is to be it will be; if not,
I am quite happy as I am. And for money, can I not always come to you
whenever I want it? You supply me endlessly for my poor people. And,
as Captain Bruce was saying to papa the other night, you are a perfect
mine of gold--and of generosity."

"Helen," Lord Cairnforth said, after he had sat thinking a while, "I
wanted to consult you about Captain Bruce. How do you like him? That
is, do you still continue to like him, for I know you did at first?"

"And I do still. I feel so very sorry for him."

"Only, my dear"--Lord Cairnforth sometimes called her "my dear," and
spoke to her with a tender, superior wisdom--"one's link to one's
friends ought to be a little stronger than being sorry for them; one
ought to respect them. One must respect them before one can trust them
very much--with one's property, for instance."

"D