.

In his new position as,--not quite head of his family, but head
expectant,--it seemed to him to be his duty to lecture his sister.
It might be well that some one should lecture her with more severity
than her father used. Undoubtedly she was succumbing to the
wretchedness of her position in a manner that was repugnant to
humanity generally. There is no power so useful to man as that
capacity of recovering himself after a fall, which belongs especially
to those who possess a healthy mind in a healthy body. It is not rare
to see one,--generally a woman,--whom a sorrow gradually kills; and
there are those among us, who hardly perhaps envy, but certainly
admire, a spirit so delicate as to be snuffed out by a woe. But it
is the weakness of the heart rather than the strength of the feeling
which has in such cases most often produced the destruction. Some
endurance of fibre has been wanting, which power of endurance is a
noble attribute. Everett Wharton saw something of this, and being,
now, the heir apparent of the family, took his sister to task.
"Emily," he said, "you make us all unhappy when we look at you."

"Do I?" she said. "I am sorry for that;--but why should you look at
me?"

"Because you are one of us. Of course we cannot shake you
off. We would not if we could. We have all been very unhappy
because,--because of what has happened. But don't you think you ought
to make some sacrifice to us,--to our father, I mean, and to Sir
Alured and Lady Wharton? When you go on weeping, other people have to
weep too. I have an idea that people ought to be happy if it be only
for the sake of their neighbours."

"What am I to do, Everett?"

"Talk to people a little, and smile sometimes. Move about quicker.
Don't look when you come into a room as if you were consecrating it
to tears. And, if I may venture to say so, drop something of the
heaviness of your mourning."

"Do you mean that I am a hypocrite?"

"No;--I mean nothing of the kind. You know I don't. But you may exert
yourself for the benefit of others without being untrue to your own
memories. I am sure you know what I mean. Make a struggle and see if
you cannot do something."

She did make a struggle, and she did do something. No one, not well
versed in the mysteries of feminine dress, could say very accurately
what it was that she had done; but every one felt that something of
the weight was reduced. At first, as her brother's words came upon
her ear, and as sh