e use of shivering on
the brink?"

"It was from Mr. Crosbie."

"I knew it. I cannot tell you why, but I knew it. And now, mamma;--am
I to read it?"

"You shall do as you please, Lily."

"Then I please to read it."

"Listen to me a moment first. For myself, I wish that the letter had
never been written. It tells badly for the man, as I think of it. I
cannot understand how any man could have brought himself to address
either you or me, after having acted as he acted."

"But, mamma, we differ about all that, you know."

"Now he has written, and there is the letter,--if you choose to read
it."

Lily had it in her hand, but she still sat motionless, holding it.
"You think, mamma, I ought not to read it?"

"You must judge for yourself, dearest."

"And if I do not read it, what shall you do, mamma?"

"I shall do nothing;--or, perhaps, I should in such a case
acknowledge it, and tell him that we have nothing more to say to
him."

"That would be very stern."

"He has done that which makes some sternness necessary."

Then Lily was again silent, and still she sat motionless, with the
letter in her hand. "Mamma," she said at last, "if you tell me not to
read it, I will give it back unread. If you bid me exercise my own
judgment, I shall take it upstairs and read it."

"You must exercise your own judgment," said Mrs. Dale. Then Lily got
up from her chair and walked slowly out of the room, and went to her
mother's chamber. The thoughts which passed through Mrs. Dale's mind
while her daughter was reading the letter were very sad. She could
find no comfort anywhere. Lily, she had told herself, would surely
give way to this man's renewed expressions of affection, and she, Mrs
Dale herself, would be called upon to give her child to a man whom
she could neither love nor respect;--who, for aught she knew, she
could never cease to hate. And she could not bring herself to believe
that Lily would be happy with such a man. As for her own life,
desolate as it would be,--she cared little for that. Mothers know
that their daughters will leave them. Even widowed mothers, mothers
with but one child left,--such a one as was this mother,--are aware
that they will be left alone, and they can bring themselves to
welcome the sacrifice of themselves with something of satisfaction.
Mrs. Dale and Lily had, indeed, of late become bound together
especially, so that the mother had been justified in regarding the
link which joined them as