pt to look a trifle more aged and careworn. The fastidious eye of
the lawyer's accomplished wife could detect no flaw in the demeanour of
Miss Peck, and she added her entreaties to those of Gladys. In truth,
the poor little careworn woman was not hard to persuade. She had no ties
save those of memory to bind her to the fen country, so she gave her
promise freely, accepting her new home as a gift from God.

'I shall come one more time here only,' Gladys said, 'to take papa away.
Mr. Fordyce promised to arrange it for me. He must sleep with his own
people; and when he is in the old churchyard I shall feel at home in
Bourhill.'

All these things were done before the year was out; and Christmas saw
Gladys Graham settled in her new home, ready and eager to take up the
charge she believed God had entrusted to her--the stewardship of wealth,
to be used for His glory.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XXII.

A HELPING HAND.

All this time nothing had been heard of Liz. She was no longer known in
her old haunts--was almost forgotten, indeed, save by one or two. Among
those who remained faithful to her memory was the melancholy Teen, and
she thought of her hour by hour as she sat at her monotonous
work--thought of her with a great wonder in her soul. Sometimes a little
bitterness intermingled, and she felt herself aggrieved at having been
so shabbily treated by her old chum. She had in her quiet way instituted
a very thorough inquiry into all the circumstances of her flight, and
had kept a watchful eye on every channel from which the faintest light
was likely to shine upon the mystery, but at the end of six months it
was still unsolved. Liz was as irrevocably lost, apparently, as if the
earth had opened and swallowed her.

Teen had come to the conclusion that Liz had veritably emigrated to
London, and was there assiduously, and probably successfully, wooing
fame and fortune. Sometimes the weary burden of her toil was beguiled by
dreams of a bright day on which Liz, grown a great lady, but still true
to the old friendship, should come, perhaps, in a coach and pair, up
the squalid street and remove the little seamstress to be a sharer in
her glory. In one particular Teen was entirely and persistently loyal to
her friend. She believed that she had kept herself pure, and when doubts
had been thrown on that theory by others who believed in her less, she
had closed their tattling mouths with language such as they were not
accus