hly pleasures must sooner or later be. Not a single incident had
marred its harmony, and, to Nelly Connor in particular, the day had
been one of unmingled and unprecedented enjoyment. How different from
what it would have been had she not, in a strength from above,
overcome the temptation to which she had so nearly yielded!

VIII.

_Partings._

"Only, since our souls will shrink
At the touch of natural grief,
When our earthly loved ones sink,
Lend us, Lord, Thy sure relief,--
Patient hearts, their pain to see,
And Thy grace, to follow Thee."

Stella's visit was now drawing to a close. She had very much enjoyed
its novelty, and had, during her stay, made some acquisitions, though
not of a kind that she yet appreciated, or was even conscious of. It
was impossible for her to be so long in a household where every day
was begun and closed by invoking God's presence and guidance, where
His blessing and approbation were steadily regarded as the best of all
good, where the standard of action was that laid down in His word, and
where His strengthening grace was looked upon as the most necessary
equipment for daily life, without receiving a deeper impression of the
importance of these things than she had ever before felt. And though
the members of her uncle's family had their share of human
imperfections, yet on the whole the example she had seen around her
had been sufficiently consistent to show her, almost against her will,
the beauty of a Christian life, as contrasted with one based wholly on
worldly principles. Some seeds of good, at all events, she carried
back with her, though she was far from having profited as she might
have done, had her heart been more open to receive the influences
around her.

It had been a new thing to Lucy to have a companion of her own age and
sex; she had become really attached to her winsome cousin, and all the
transient irritation which Stella had often caused her passed into
oblivion now that they were really about to part. Alick was to escort
Stella to the residence of a friend whom she was to visit on her way
home; and the cousins parted with affectionate hopes of a visit from
Stella next summer, and also of a winter visit which Mr. Raymond had
half promised that Lucy should make to her cousin's city home.

The loss of Stella's restless and vivacious presence made no small
blank in the house--a blank to be still further increased by the
permane