tock Exchange, and there'll be no end of swells there.
I got the tickets because the guv'nor's going into the country to
preach to-night, and while the cat's away we can slip out and enjoy
ourselves; not that he'd object to a sacred concert, I suppose,
especially if he were allowed to hold forth during the intervals," he
added, with a sneer.

"It is very kind of you to ask me," said Ida; "but I think I would
rather stay at home."

"I thought you were fond of music," Joseph remarked, beginning to look
sullen. "We shall go quite quietly, and no one need know anything about
it, for I got tickets for the upper circle and not the stalls on
purpose; and they're in a back row. I thought you'd enjoy this concert,
and if you don't go I shall tear up the tickets."

"Oh, do let us go, Ida!" pleaded Isabel. "A sacred concert isn't as
good as a theatre, but it will be a break in the monotony; besides,
Joseph must have had a lot of trouble to get the tickets, for I read in
the paper that there was a regular rush for them. Don't be selfish,
Ida, and spoil our enjoyment."

"I wish you would go without me," said Ida, with a sigh; but ultimately
she yielded.

Mrs. Heron, of course, knew that they were going, but she was not told
in so many words, that she might deny all knowledge of it if the outing
came to Mr. Heron's ears; and she watched them with a peevish and
suspicious expression on her face as they started for the train. They
went up second-class, and Mr. Joseph, who was in the best of humours,
and wore a new pair of patent-leather boots and a glossy hat, to say
nothing of a dazzling tie, enlivened the journey by whispering
facetious remarks on their fellow-passengers to Ida, who in vain leant
away from him, as far as possible, in her corner of the carriage, and
endeavoured to concentrate her attention on the programme. But though
her eyes were fixed on it and she could not entirely shut out Joseph's
ill-bred jokes, her thoughts were wandering back to a certain afternoon
when she had sat beside the Heron stream and listened to Stafford
planning out their future. He had been telling her something of the
great world of which she knew nothing, but into which he was going to
take her, hand in hand, as it were; he was going to take her to the
theatres and the concerts and the dances of which she had read and
heard, but of which she knew nothing by experience. Now, she was going
to her first concert with Mr. Joseph Heron.

There