of the lower face she was the very echo of her mother. But the
mouth was smaller, the lips less full, and the dimple less exaggerated.
It was a fairer face to look upon,--fairer, perhaps, than her mother's
had ever been; but it was less expressive, and in it there was
infinitely less capability for anger, and perhaps less capability for
the agonising extremes of tenderness. But Kate was taller than her
mother, and seemed by her mother's side to be slender. Nevertheless she
was strong and healthy; and though she did not willingly join in those
longer walks, or expose herself to the weather as did her mother, there
was nothing feeble about her, nor was she averse to action. Life at
Ardkill Cottage was dull, and therefore she also was dull. Had she been
surrounded by friends, such as she had known in her halcyon school days
at Paris, she would have been the gayest of the gay.

Her hair was dark as her mother's,--even darker. Seen by the side of
Miss O'Hara's, the mother's hair was certainly not black, but one could
hardly think that hair could be blacker than the daughter's. But hers
fell in curling clusters round her neck,--such clusters as now one never
sees. She would shake them in sport, and the room would seem to be full
of her locks. But she used to say herself to her mother that there was
already to be found a grey hair among them now and again, and she would
at times shew one, declaring that she would be an old woman before her
mother was middle-aged.

Her life at Ardkill Cottage was certainly very dull. Memory did but
little for her, and she hardly knew how to hope. She would read, till
she had nearly learned all their books by heart, and would play such
tunes as she knew by the hour together, till the poor instrument,
subject to the sea air and away from any tuner's skill, was discordant
with its limp strings. But still, with all this, her mind would become
vacant and weary. "Mother," she would say, "is it always to be like
this?"

"Not always, Kate," the mother once answered.

"And when will it be changed?"

"In a few days,--in a few hours, Kate."

"What do you mean, mother?"

"That eternity is coming, with all its glory and happiness. If it were
not so, it would, indeed, be very bad."

It may be doubted whether any human mind has been able to content itself
with hopes of eternity, till distress in some shape has embittered life.
The preachers preach very well,--well enough to leave many convictions
on