here everything will be different, and you will not
think half as much of me, I know."

"If you believe that, Gertrude, it is because you do _not_ know. You
will have friends all around you and I shall be alone in a foreign land;
but every day of my life my heart will be with you and my mother."

They were now interrupted by Mr. Cooper's return, nor did they
afterwards renew the conversation; but the morning Willie left them,
when Mrs. Sullivan was leaning over a neatly-packed trunk in the next
room, trying to hide her tears, and Mr. Cooper's head was bowed lower
than usual, Willie whispered to Gerty, "Gerty, dear, for my sake take
good care of _our_ mother and grandfather--they are _yours_ almost as
much as mine."

On Willie's thus leaving home, for the first time, to struggle and
strive among men, Mr. Cooper, who could not yet believe that the boy
would be successful in the war with fortune, gave him many a caution
against indulgent hopes which never would be realised. And Mrs.
Sullivan, with tears, said, "Love and fear God, Willie, and do not
disappoint your mother." We pause not to dwell upon the last night the
youth spent at his home, his mother's last evening prayer, her last
morning benediction, the last breakfast they all took together (Gertrude
among the rest), or the final farewell embrace. And Willie went to sea.
And the pious, loving, hopeful woman, who for eighteen years had
cherished her boy with tenderness and pride, maintained now her wonted
spirit of self-sacrifice, and gave him up without a murmur. None knew
how she struggled with her aching heart, or whence came the power that
sustained her.

And now began Gertrude's residence at Mr. Graham's, hitherto in various
ways interrupted. She attended school, and laboured diligently at her
studies. Her life was varied by few incidents, for Emily never
entertained much company, and in the winter scarcely any, and Gertrude
formed no intimate acquaintance among her companions. With Emily she
passed many happy hours; they took walks, read books, and talked much
with each other, and Miss Graham found that in Gertrude's observing
eyes, and her feeling and glowing descriptions of everything that came
within their gaze, she was herself renewing her acquaintance with the
outer world. In errands of charity and mercy Gertude was either her
attendant or her messenger; and all the dependants of the family, from
the cook to the little boy who called at the door for the