n; for when there is nothing to rouse her interest and
when she is silent, that look of sadness is doubtless what chiefly
impresses one. Her face then bears the traces of weary thought and
of trying sorrow; but when she is engaged in conversation, and
especially if her keen sense of humor has been touched, her
countenance becomes lit with an exceedingly engaging brightness, or
beams with heartiest laughter.

Her life at Balmoral since her great sorrow maintains, as far as may
be, the traditions of the happy past. She still makes expeditions,
_cognita_ or _incognita_, sometimes to the scenes of former
enjoyment or to new places of interest. She has in this way visited
Blair, Dunkeld, Invermark, Glenfiddich, Invertrossachs, Dunrobin,
Inverlochy, Inverary, Loch Marll, and Broxmouth.

The queen, among her people at Balmoral, gives a splendid example to
every landlord. "The first lady in the land" is the most gracious
mistress possible. Her interest is no condescending "make-believe,"
as we sometimes find it in the case of others, who seek a certain
popularity among their dependents by showing spasmodic attentions
which it is difficult to harmonize with a prevailing indifference.
With the queen it is the unaffected care of one who really loves her
people, and who is keenly touched by all that touches them. She
knows them all by name, and in the times of their sorrow they
experience from her a personal sympathy peculiarly soothing. There
is indeed no part of the volumes she has given us more surprising
than the minute knowledge she there shows of all the people who have
been in any way connected with her. The gillies, guides, and
gamekeepers, the maids who have served her, the attendants,
coachmen, and footmen, are seldom mentioned without some notice of
their lives being recorded as faithfully as is the case with peers
and peeresses. How few mistresses are there who, burdened as she is
with duty, would thus hold in kindest remembrance each faithful
servant, become acquainted with their circumstances, and provide for
them in age or in trial with generous solicitude. It is this rich
humanity of feeling that is her noblest characteristic. The public
are accustomed to see messages of sympathy sent by the queen in
cases of disaster and of accident, but they cannot know how truly
those calamities fall upon her own heart. As far as her life in the
Highlands is concerned, she is now perhaps the best specimen we have
of what the o