, as I had myself been in early life; and, after my
marriage, I used positively to dislike her, and to dread meeting her,
for she was the only one of my former acquaintances who met me on the
same terms as she had always done. I thought she wished to remind me
that we were once equals in station; but I learned, when I came to know
her well, how far she was above so mean a thought. I hardly know how
I came first to appreciate her, but we were occasionally thrown in
contact, and her sentiments were so beautiful--so much above the common
stamp--that I could not fail to be attracted by her. She was a noble
woman. The world knows few like her. So modest and retiring--with an
earnest desire to do all the good in the world of which she was capable,
but with no ambition to shine. Well fitted as she was, to be an ornament
in any station of society, she seemed perfectly content to be the idol
of her own family, and known to few besides. There were few subjects on
which she had not thought, and her clear perceptions went at once to the
bottom of a subject, so that she solved simply many a question on which
astute philosophers had found themselves at fault. I came at last to
regard her opinion almost as an oracle. I have often thought, since her
death, that it was her object to turn my life into that channel to which
it has since been devoted, but I do not know. I had never thought of the
work that has since occupied me at the time of her death, but I can see
now how cautiously and gradually she led me among the poor, and taught
me to sympathize with their sufferings, and gave me, little by little,
a clue to the evils that had sprung up in the management of our public
charities. She was called from her family in the prime of life, but they
who come after her do assuredly rise up and call her blessed. She has
left a fine family, who will not soon forget, the instructions of their
mother."

"Ah! yes, there it is, Mrs. Walters. A woman's sphere, after all, is at
home. One may do a great deal of good in public, no doubt, as you have
done; but don't you think that, while you have devoted yourself so
untiringly to other affairs, you have been obliged to neglect your own
family in order to gain time for this? One cannot live two lives at
once, you know."

"No, madam, certainly we cannot live two lives at once, but we can glean
a much larger harvest from the one which is, bestowed upon us than we
are accustomed to think. I do not, by any