l
thing to be recalled to the two passions of my youth--fishing and
photography.'

'My husband will give Francis employment in the morning,' said Mrs.
Prendergast. 'It will not do to give Sarah's natural irritability too
many excuses for outbreaks.'

'She never accepts excuses,' said Lucilla, 'though I am sure she might.
I have been a sore trial to her diligence and methodicalness; and her
soul is too much bent on her work for us to drag her out to be foolish,
as would be best for her.'

'So it might be for her; but, my dear, pardon me, I am not speaking only
for Sarah's sake.'

With an odd jerk of head and hand, Cilly exclaimed, 'Oh! the old
story--the other f--flirting, is it?'

'I never said that! I never thought that,' cried Mrs. Prendergast,
shocked at the word and idea that had never crossed her mind.

'If not,' said Cilla, 'it is because you are too innocent to know
flirting when you see it! Dear Mrs. Prendergast, I didn't think you
would have looked so grave.'

'I did not think you would have spoken so lightly; but it is plain that
we do not mean the same thing.'

'In fact, you in your quietness, think awfully of that which for years
was to me like breathing! I thought the taste was gone for ever, but,
you see'--and her sad sweet expression pleaded for her--'you have made me
so happy that the old self is come back.' There was a silence, broken by
this strange girl saying, 'Well, what are you going to do to me?'

'Only,' said the lady, in her sweet, full, impressive voice, 'to beg you
will indeed be happy in giving yourself no cause for self-reproach.'

'I'm past that,' said Lucilla, with a smile on her lip and a tear in her
eye. 'I've not known that sensation since my father died. My chief
happiness since that has lain in being provoking, but you have taken away
that pleasure. I couldn't purposely vex you, even if I were your adopted
child!'

Without precisely knowing the full amount of these words, Mrs.
Prendergast understood past bitterness and present warmth, and, gratified
to find that at least there was no galling at their mutual relations,
responded with a smile and a caress that led Lucilla to continue--'As for
the word that dismayed you, I only meant to acknowledge an unlucky
propensity to be excited about any nonsense, in which any _man_ kind is
mixed up. If Sarah would take to it, I could more easily abstain, but
you see her coquetries are with nobody more recent than Horace and