hattered than
altered. In merging towards this side, there was a tender respect in
Dr. Spencer's manner that was most beautiful, though this evening such
subjects were scrupulously kept at the utmost distance, by the constant
interchange of new and old jokes and stories.

Only when bed-time had come, and Margaret had been carried off--did a
silence fall on the two friends, unbroken till Dr. May rose and proposed
going upstairs. When he gave his hand to wish good-night, Dr. Spencer
held it this time most carefully, and said, "Oh, May! I did not expect
this!"

"I should have prepared you," said his host, "but I never recollected
that you knew nothing--"

"I had dwelt on your happiness!"

"There never were two happier creatures for twenty-two years," said Dr.
May, his voice low with emotion. "Sorrow spared her! Yes, think of her
always in undimmed brightness--always smiling as you remember her. She
was happy. She is," he concluded. His friend had turned aside and hidden
his face with his hands, then looked up for a moment, "And you, Dick,"
he said briefly.

"Sorrow spared her," was Dr. May's first answer. "And hers are very good
children!"

There was a silence again, ending in Dr. May's saying, "What do you
think of my poor girl?"

They discussed the nature of the injury: Dr. Spencer could not feel
otherwise than that it was a very hopeless matter. Her father owned
that he had thought so from the first, and had wondered at Sir Matthew
Fleet's opinion. His subdued tone of patience and resignation, struck
his guest above all, as changed from what he had once been.

"You have been sorely tried," he said, when they parted at his room
door.

"I have received much good!" simply answered Dr. May. "Goodnight! I am
glad to have you here--if you can bear it."

"Bear it? Dick! how like that girl is to you! She is yourself!"

"Such a self as I never was! Good-night."

Ethel overcame the difficulty of giving the account of the newspaper
alarm with tolerable success, by putting the story of Meta's
conversation foremost. Margaret did not take it to heart as much as she
had feared, nor did she appear to dwell on it afterwards. The truth was
perhaps that Dr. Spencer's visit was to every one more of an excitement
and amusement than it was to Ethel. Not that she did not like him
extremely, but after such a week as she had been spending, the
home-world seemed rather stale and unprofitable.

Miss Bracy relapsed into a state o