me know. Have your wages been paid?"

There was a sound in the affirmative, but poor Preston could not speak.
"Good-bye, then," and Flora took her hand and shook it. "Mind you let me
hear if you want help. Keep this."

Meta was a little disappointed to see sovereigns instead of a book.
Flora turned to go, and put her hand out to lean on her sister as for
support; she stood still to gather strength before ascending the stairs,
and a groan of intense misery was wrung from her.

"Dearest Flora, it has been too much!"

"No," said Flora gently.

"Poor thing, I am glad for her sake. But might she not have a book--a
Bible?"

"You may give her one, if you like. I could not."

Flora reached her own room, went in, and bolted the door.

CHAPTER XXI.

Oh, where dwell ye, my ain sweet bairns?
I'm woe and weary grown!
Oh, Lady, we live where woe never is,
In a land to flesh unknown.--ALLAN CUNNINGHAM.

It had been with a gentle sorrow that Etheldred had expected to go and
lay in her resting-place, the little niece, who had been kept from the
evil of the world, in a manner of which she had little dreamt. Poor
Flora! she must be ennobled, she thought, by having a child where hers
is, when she is able to feel anything but the first grief; and Ethel's
heart yearned to be trying, at least, to comfort her, and to be with her
father, who had loved his grandchild so fondly.

It was not to be. Margaret had borne so many shocks with such calmness,
that Ethel had no especial fears for her; but there are some persons who
have less fortitude for others than for themselves, and she was one of
these. Ethel had been her own companion-sister, and the baby had been
the sunbeam of her life, during the sad winter and spring.

In the middle of the night, Ethel knocked at Richard's door. Margaret
had been seized with faintness, from which they could not bring her
back; and, even when Richard had summoned Dr. Spencer, it was long ere
his remedies took effect; but, at last, she revived enough to thank
them, and say she was glad that papa was not there.

Dr. Spencer sent them all to bed, and the rest of the night was quiet;
but Margaret could not deny, in the morning, that she felt terribly
shattered, and she was depressed in spirits to a degree such as they
had never seen in her before. Her whole heart was with Flora; she was
unhappy at being at a distance from her, almost fretfully impatient for
letters,