g sort, and so this emotion
went to her friend's heart. Miss Letitia went up and put her arms
round her.

"Come, Gracie," she said, "you must not take it so seriously. John is
a noble, manly fellow. He loves you, and he will always be master of
his own house."

"No, he won't,--no married man ever is," said Miss Grace, wiping her
eyes, and sitting up very straight. "No man, that is a gentleman, is
ever master in his own house. He has only such rights there as his
wife chooses to give him; and this woman won't like me, I'm sure."

"Perhaps she will," said Letitia, in a faltering voice.

"No, she won't; because I have no faculty for lying, or playing
the hypocrite in any way, and I shan't approve of her. These
soft, slippery, pretty little fibbing women have always been my
abomination."

"Oh, my _dear_ Grace!" said Miss Ferguson, "do let us make the best of
it."

"I _did_ think," said Miss Grace, wiping her eyes, "that John had some
sense. I wasn't such a fool, nor so selfish, as to want him always to
live for me. I wanted him to marry; and if he had got engaged to your
Rose, for instance ... O Letitia! I always did so _hope_ that he and
Rose would like each other."

"We can't choose for our brothers," said Miss Letitia, "and, hard as
it is, we must make up our minds to love those they bring to us. Who
knows what good influences may do for poor Lillie Ellis? She never has
had any yet. Her family are extremely common sort of people, without
any culture or breeding, and only her wonderful beauty brought them
into notice; and they have always used that as a sort of stock in
trade."

"And John says, in this letter, that she reminds him of our mother,"
said Miss Grace; "and he thinks that naturally she was very much such
a character. Just think of that, now!"

"He must be far gone," said Miss Ferguson; "but then, you see, she is
distractingly pretty. She has just the most exquisitely pearly, pure,
delicate, saint-like look, at times, that you ever saw; and then she
knows exactly how she does look, and just how to use her looks; and
John can't be blamed for believing in her. I, who know all about her,
am sometimes taken in by her."

"Well," said Miss Grace, "Mrs. Lennox was at Newport last summer at
the time that she was there, and she told me all about her. I think
her an artful, unscrupulous, unprincipled woman, and her being made
mistress of this house just breaks up our pleasant sociable life here.
She has no