ar Grace, I suppose this is so, more or less, with us all.
What we want, I think, and comparatively seldom find in these showy and
surface days, is a high sense of duty, so that we just act as duty
calls, let the world, or good people even, judge of us or speak of us as
they please."

"And yet, dear Mary, I think I see a little crevice through which self
may creep in even there. I have met some of your `duty' people who have
flung themselves so violently against the prejudices of society, or, at
any rate, of good people, crying out all the time, `Duty, duty! It
don't matter to us what the world thinks,' that they have given great
offence where they might have avoided giving any, and have set up
people's backs against what is good and true."

"I dare say you have met such, dear Grace, and I think you may be
talking to one of the class now," said Miss Stansfield, laughing; "at
least, my character and principles would naturally lead me in that
direction, for, of course, we are all disposed to carry out our own
views to an extreme, if we do not let common sense, enlightened by
grace, preserve a proper balance. But, spite of this, I still feel that
a high sense of duty in those who love our Saviour is the surest
preservative against being carried away by a subtle selfishness, and is
the making of the finest and most truly self-denying characters. If I
am manifestly in the path of duty, what matters it what is said of me,
or who says it? I may then go forward, not, indeed, arrogantly or
defiantly--that would be unlike the great Master--but yet firmly and
confidently, and God will set me right with the world and with his
people in his own good time."

"Ah! I believe you are right," said her friend, with a sigh. "I wish
there were more of such true unselfishness amongst us; I wish I were
such a character myself."

"And so you are, dear Grace, in the main. No one can possibly doubt
your genuineness and sincerity. You have only just to step up on to the
higher platform, and, as your heart's gaze becomes more fixed on a
Saviour known and loved, you will cease to think about how your self-
denial looks in the eyes of others, and will feel the cross which you
carry after Christ in the path of duty to be easy and his burden light."

"I shall not forget our conversation on this subject," said Miss
Willerly with tears in her eyes. "I always thought that I hated
selfishness, but now I see that I have been blinded to my ow